Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy outlines the way in which British Universities and Colleges Sport Limited (BUCS, we and us) collects, uses and protects your personal data. We collect your personal data when you visit the website at https://bucs.org.uk  (the BUCS Website), and when you access and use the BUCS competition management platforms (including but not limited to BUCScore, the BUCS member portal (also known as ‘My BUCS’), the BUCS Competition Management Platform (the cloud-based web and mobile app sports platform provided by Playwaze Ltd, also known as ‘BUCS Play’) and any other external competition platforms) (the BUCS CM Platforms).

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy sets out how we use the personal data we collect about you, how you can instruct us if you prefer to limit the use of your personal data and the procedures that we have in place to safeguard your privacy. This policy not only applies to information collected via the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms, but also any form of data collected by BUCS in the pursuit of its legitimate business interests.

2. Definitions

The following definitions are used in this Privacy Policy:

Data Protection Legislation means all applicable data protection and privacy legislation in force from time to time in the UK including the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679), the Data Protection Act 2018 or any successor legislation, and any other directly applicable European Union regulation relating to data protection and privacy; and

personal data means information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.

3. Important information and who we are

BUCS is the controller in relation to, and is responsible for, your personal data.

Our full details are as follows:

Full name of legal entity: British Universities and Colleges Sport Limited (a private company limited by guarantee with company number 06483060 and having its registered office address at 20-24 Kings Bench Street, London, SE1 0QV).
Name of data privacy manager: Jessica Melling
Email address: [email protected]
Postal address: BUCS Office, 20-24 Kings Bench Street, London, SE1 0QX

4. What personal data do we collect?

We collect personal data when you register with, and subsequently use or visit the BUCS Website, and/or the BUCS CM Platforms. Personal data may also be collected by other means, such as, but not limited to, written correspondence and verbal communication. We also collect additional information automatically about your visit to the BUCS Website.

We may collect, store and use the following categories of personal data, including the examples of personal data given for each category:

• Technical Data: information about your computer and about your visits to and use of the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms (including your IP address, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views);
• Contact and Identity Data: when you register for the BUCS CM Platforms we may collect information such as your first name, last name, and email address. This may also include data to assess eligibility for competition or to gain insight into who takes part, for example, gender, date of birth, ethnicity, university, university email address, course end date, institution student ID, subject area of study, level of study and out of term location;
• Marketing and Communication Data: information including your preferences in receiving marketing from us, your communication preferences, and emails opened and/or clicked;
• Competition Data: information that you provide to us for the purpose of entering BUCS competitions and events and viewing BUCS fixtures and league results. You may also feature in any photos or filming where we choose to take photos at, or film, BUCS competitions and events for broadcasting or publicity purposes;
• Volunteering Data: information that you provide to us for the purpose of volunteering with BUCS;
• Analytical data: information including but not limited to, third-party analytics services (such as Google Analytics and DotDigital) to evaluate your use of the BUCS CM Platforms, the BUCS Website and emails. We will use this data to compile reports on activity, collect demographic data, analyse performance metrics, and collect and evaluate other information relating to our app, website and email use; and
• Member Administration Data: information that you provide to us in the course of administering your duties as a BUCS member.

We may also collect, use, and share aggregated data, such as statistical or demographic 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 participating in a particular type of sport. However, if we combine aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we will treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We may collect and process certain ‘special categories of personal data’ about you (this could include details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data) but we will only do so if you have given your explicit consent to the processing of such data for purposes which we have specified.

Please note that when you first register on BUCS Play, your personal data will be collected by Playwaze Ltd and will be processed by Playwaze Ltd subject to the terms of that company’s privacy policy. As part of the commercial arrangements which BUCS has with Playwaze Ltd for the use and administration of BUCS Play your personal data may be shared with BUCS by Playwaze Ltd. Any personal data which we receive from Playwaze Ltd will be processed by BUCS in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. 

5. Our use of cookies and other information gathering technologies

A "cookie" is a small text file which is either stored on the user hard drive, or in memory until the browser is closed. Cookies help tracing users from page to page on an internet site. They are generated by web servers when the user enters an internet page and are passed to the user's computer and stored for subsequent future access.

We use both “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies on the BUCS Website. We will use the session cookies to: keep track of you whilst you navigate the website; we will use the persistent cookies to: enable the BUCS Website to recognise you when you visit. Session cookies will be deleted from your computer when you close your browser. Persistent cookies will remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach a specified expiry date.

Most browsers will allow you to turn off cookies. However, switching off cookies will restrict your use of the BUCS Website. To view all the cookies in use on the BUCS Website please click here.

6. Using your personal data

We will only use your personal data to the extent that the law allows us to do so. Under the Data Protection Legislation we will rely on the following legal bases for processing your personal data:

• where it is necessary to perform a contract we have entered into or are about to enter into with you (whether in relation to the provision of our services to you or otherwise);
• where it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms do not override those legitimate interests; and/or
• where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

Personal data submitted on the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms, or in any other form to BUCS, will be used for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.

We may use your personal data to:

administer the BUCS Website, and/or the BUCS CM Platforms;

• provide and personalise your browsing experience on the BUCS Website;
• enable your use of the services available on the BUCS Website;
• send you general corporate communications;
• send you email notifications or newsletters;
• send you information regarding the BUCS sports, events and competitions you administer or have registered to compete in;
• send you information regarding BUCS sports, events, and business areas you have expressed interest in;
• administer expense claims relating to BUCS events and business;
• keep a record of performance and participation in BUCS sports, events and competitions for historical reference purposes;
• provide third parties with statistical information about BUCS users – though please note that this information will not be used to identify any individual user;
• provide third parties with contact details for the purposes of collating entry information for BUCS competitions and events, and for the purpose of running the BUCS competitions or events;
• send you information relating to or from selected BUCS partners;
• deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms, or other BUCS business;
• for the detection of fraud and for market research purposes; and
• for other reasonable purposes, always acting within the limits of the Data Protection Legislation. 

We will not without your express consent provide your personal data to any third parties for the purposes of direct marketing.

In relation to the uses of personal data, where we are processing this data on the basis of our ‘legitimate interests’ this refers to the interest which BUCS has in conducting and managing its business to enable BUCS to give you the best university and college sport experience through (a) supporting and promoting the lifestyle and educational benefits to communities and individuals of taking part in sport and (b) providing outstanding opportunities to all students to engage in sport and related activity in higher education. We make sure that we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us as referred to in this Privacy Policy.

By participating in any BUCS Event you grant BUCS the exclusive royalty-free perpetual right and licence throughout the world to interview and/or photograph and/or film you at the Event and use and sublicence the use of your name, likeness and image, signature, voice, video and film portrayals and other means of identification of you in all current and future media in connection with (a) all broadcast rights to the Event in whatever media; (b) BUCS’ commercial programme (including granting BUCS commercial partners the right to use your image); and (c) the marketing and promotion of the Event and of BUCS itself.

In addition, if at any point, you decide that you do not want BUCS to process data about you, you can let us know at any time by contacting us at [email protected], and we will delete your personal data from our systems (except to the extent that by law we may be required to retain any of your personal data). However, this may mean that you are unable to compete in our programmes if we are unable to verify your personal details.

7. Disclosures

Institutional Administrators and Master Users on BUCS platforms will have access to personal data, which may include data from other institutions, in order to conduct the legitimate business of the organisation. Institutional Administrators and Master Users should adhere to GDPR when handling and/or processing any data in relation to BUCS platforms.

We may disclose information about you to any of our employees, officers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors who assist us in running the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms, or in the course of conducting our business, insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this Privacy Policy.

In addition, we may disclose your personal data:

• to your institution when you join a team or an event through the BUCS CM Platforms;
• to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
• in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
• in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk); and
• to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset which we are (or are contemplating) selling.

Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, we will not provide your personal data to third parties.

8. Security of your personal data

We will take reasonable technical and organisational measures to prevent the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, misuse, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, your personal data. 

We will store all the personal data you provide on our secure (password- and firewall- protected) servers.

Of course, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

If you are registered on the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms, you are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. You can reset your password at any point by visiting the ‘my account’ area and answering some security questions or requesting your password be reset. BUCS will never ask you for your password.

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. A copy of our data retention policy is available on request.

9. International Transfers

From time to time we may transfer your personal data to third parties based outside of the EEA for the purposes described in this privacy policy (for example, in relation to your participation in international competitions and events, and the organisation of such competitions and events). Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we shall ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• we will only transfer your personal data to countries that the European Commission has decided provide an adequate level of protection for personal data;
• where we ask a third party to process personal data on our behalf, we may use standard data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in the EEA.

10. Your consent

By submitting your personal data through the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms you consent to the use of your personal data as set out in this Privacy Policy. If we change our Privacy Policy we will post the changes on the BUCS Website, so that you should be aware of the information we collect and how we use it at all times.

You may change your mind and withdraw consent at any time by contacting us using the contact details provided above but that will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.

11. Your rights

Under certain circumstances, you have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a ‘subject access request’). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data in certain circumstances.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.

Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.

Lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”). If you have any complaints about the way in which we process your personal data please do contact us, as set out above. Alternatively, you have the right to lodge a formal complaint with the ICO.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal data, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal data to another party, please contact us using the details provided above. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights above). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

12. Miscellaneous

By registering on the BUCS Website and/or the BUCS CM Platforms you authorise BUCS to store and use your personal data.  You may instruct us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes by email at any time by contacting [email protected] or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of receiving all subsequent emails via the log in areas.

If you are at a member institution, your personal data may be sent to BUCS from your institution for the purpose of participating in BUCS events or competitions. BUCS may use this data for its business purposes, including:

• using your personal data to enable you to compete in BUCS championships/competitions, and to attend BUCS events. This includes personal data that directly links to the eligibility for the competition (such as date of birth, age, licence numbers etc);
• using your email address to send you a welcome email to BUCS that allows you to subscribe/ register to the BUCS Website and opt-out of all communications if desired. This can validate your email address and allow you to receive event specific communication; and
• using statistics from your data to ensure BUCS events are run better in the future and to allow BUCS to shape the BUCS Website for better communications.

BUCS will never use this personal data for non-BUCS events or sporting competitions without your prior consent.

13. Third party websites

The BUCS Website contains links to other third party websites, (including websites of organisations which BUCS has partnered with, or is supported by, to provide its services, a list of which can be found on the BUCS Website). We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites, and do not endorse any products or services which may be provided to you through such third party websites.

14. Social Media

The BUCS Website integrates with social media sites to allow existing users of the BUCS CM Platforms the opportunity to discuss, comment or share information on the BUCS Website.

BUCS takes no responsibility for any registrations on external social media sites that have been accessed or located by you through the BUCS Website.

Any comments or articles expressed using any social media plug-ins on the BUCS Website are not the opinions of BUCS and are solely an opinion shared by a user of the BUCS Website. BUCS reserves the right to remove any comment, block users from using the social media integration areas on the BUCS Website or ultimately report any users to the relevant social media platform provider if any user comments are deemed inappropriate. The nature of these inappropriate comments includes, but is not limited to:

• any bullying or threatening behaviour to a club, team or individual;
• any bad language;
• any mentions or references to excessive drinking associated to a BUCS fixture, club or team; and
• any sponsor / commercial message deemed to be either:
  • directly conflicting any pre-existing BUCS sponsor or advertiser; or
  • benefiting from the BUCS Website traffic without prior agreement.

BUCS operates a number of social media channels, including, but not necessarily limited to, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and LinkedIn, and will operate in accordance with the terms and conditions of the relevant businesses. If you choose to register or sign up to any BUCS social media channels you do so in accordance with those channels’ terms and conditions, and in accordance with the above BUCS terms.

15. Embedding League Tables

BUCS allows owners of websites the opportunity to embed specific league tables into their websites. BUCS can, at any point, withdraw the service of embeddable content. Any organisation deemed to be using the league tables for commercial or increased traffic reason (deemed outside of the business sector (ie non-Higher Education Institutions)) will have the code disabled – prior authority should be sought from the BUCS Commercial team on 020 7633 5080.

BUCS retains all intellectual property and ownership rights in and to the content which it allows to be embedded on other websites.

The code is provided free of charge for website owners. The code should be used as given and any manipulation, editing or removing of certain code or code lines is forbidden and any website found as doing this will be barred for using the code and reported to the appropriate bodies.

16. Advertisers

Any dealings or contact with advertisers or suppliers found on the website including the purchase of goods and services, are solely between you and such advertiser or supplier. BUCS shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings. 

17. Updating information

If any of the personal data which we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated, for example if you change your email address, or if you wish to amend your request, please let us know the current details by writing to us by email or post using the contact details located in ‘Important information and who we are’ above. Alternatively, you can update your details personally through the BUCS Website or BUCS CM Platforms.

18. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our treatment of your personal data, please write to us by email or post using the contact details located in ‘Important information and who we are’ above.