Privacy

Privacy Statement for the NUI Galway Web site and App

The University of Galway (the “University”) fully respects your right to privacy and takes every appropriate measure to secure the privacy of any information shared with the University. NUI Galway is the Data Controller of your personal data unless otherwise stated. The University acknowledges that such processing of Personal Data and Special Categories of Personal Data must meet the requirements of applicable Irish and European data protection legislation. Data Protection is the safeguarding of the privacy rights of individuals in relation to the processing of Personal and Special Categories of Personal Data. The Act, the Irish Data Protection Bill 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 confer rights on individuals as well as responsibilities on persons and organisations processing personal data. 

Purpose of Processing:

The University obtains, processes, collects, keeps, uses, discloses (where permissible by law), and retains Personal Data and Special Categories of Personal Data (both as defined in: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-4-gdpr/  ) regarding its staff, students, service users and other individuals who come in contact with or engage in business with the University. The purposes of processing Personal Data and Special Categories of  Personal Data include but are not limited to the purposes set out in University Policies and Procedures available on the University website, fulfilling the University’s functions and obligations under the Universities Act 1997 (See http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1997/act/24/enacted/en/html ), the provision of educational courses and support services, the organisation and administration of courses, undertaking of research activities, the recruitment and employment of staff, compliance with statutory obligations, reporting to Government bodies,  the provision of commercial activities, the management of financial affairs, advertising and promoting the University, publishing University and alumni publications, and undertaking fundraising. The University also processes personal information through CCTV systems that monitor and collect visual images for the purposes of research, security and the prevention and detection of crime.

User Volunteered Information:

The University does not collect any personal information on this Web site without your permission. All information volunteered within online forms is treated as confidential in accordance with applicable Irish data protection legislation and with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016. Personal information requested by online forms shall be used for the purpose set out on the online form.

Automatically Obtained Information:

A small amount of browser header information is automatically stored by the system to generate website usage statistics. IP addresses are read by the website to identify users located on the NUI Galway campus in order to offer them internal functionality.  Any other technical information, if automatically obtained by the system, will be clearly visible in a pre-filled area of our online forms.

Cookies

Some features of the NUI Galway website and app require cookies to work properly.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files, saved by the browser onto your computer.  They either store settings or else an identifier (a string of letters and numbers), which can be read by the server each time the browser requests a webpage.  They allow the web server to know how you want it to behave (e.g. don't load the chatbot) and lets it know that you are the same user who, for example, logged into the previous page (so that it won't ask you to sign in again,  on the next page).  Cookies may be used to collect non-personal information about how visitors use our website.

If a cookie does not contain an expiration date it is referred to as a temporary session cookie. Temporary session cookies are stored in memory and never written to disk, when the brower closes the cookie is permanently lost from this point on. Temporary session cookies may be used in some areas to enable specific functionality.

If the cookie contains an expiration date, it is considered a persistent cookie. On its specified expiration date, the cookie will be removed from the disk. Persistent cookies may be used to remember your preferences (e.g. preferred text size) the next time you visit. These cookies exist on your computer for a set number of days after you have visited but they contain no private or sensitive data.

How we use Cookies

We only use temporary cookies if they are necessary for the site to work. Typically these are only needed in areas  of the website where you need to log in.  

We also use the following types of persistent cookies:

• We use cookies as part of Google Analytics and Hotjar, web analytics services that allow us to see how visitors use our website.  Google analytics allows us to discover things like the number of visitors to the site; most popular pages, entry-points and exit-points; average page load times; types of browsers used; and the number of mobile devices vs PCs.   Hotjar lets us see what parts of a page were clicked on the most.  This information helps us improve our website.
  Your current analytics cookies (and what's stored in them) are as follows:
  
  No analytics cookies in use
• Cookies also store your preferences (e.g. whether to allow Analytics cookies).
  Your current preference cookies (and what's stored in them) are as follows:
  
  No preference cookies in use
• Marketing cookies allow us to track and manage our online ads for NUI Galway.ie.  They help us see how successful our ad campaigns were and can also assist in targeting ads when you are on a site that we advertise on (e.g. when you're next on Facebook, it may see, from our ad cookie, that you've been to nuigalway.ie, and then show our advertisement instead of any other University's).
  Your current marketing cookies (and what's stored in them) are as follows:
  
  No marketing cookies in use
• Functionality cookies are required for some features, such as chatbots, to work. Also, if the website needs to remember some data, that's unique to you but is not a preference setting (e.g. a digital badge), it will be stored as a functionality cookie.  Embedded content from social media or video sharing platforms may also require cookies to behave optimally.
  Your current functionality cookies (and what's stored in them) are as follows:
  
  No functionality cookies in use
• Essential Cookies: We use 5 cookies to ensure we're complying with EU cookie law. They store whether you have specified your cookie consent preferences, in the last 6 months, and what your preferences are.  Our website is powered by multiple web servers and the load balancer (which manages which of these servers you connect to) requires cookies to connect you to the same web server each time you request a webpage. 
  Your current essential cookies (and what's stored in them) are as follows:
  
  No essential cookies in use

3rd-Party Cookies

Some cookies present on our site are not related to the University: any cookies made by embedded content from Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, for example. The University does not have any control or influence on the operation of these third party cookies,  so please check the websites concerned for more information in relation to their cookie policies.

If you have not consented to functionality cookies, this website will not add them and, although it will try, it may not always be able to prevent embedded content, from other websites (such as Videos and Social Media Feeds) from automatically adding some. 

Under EU law, if you perform an action to invoke a feature, and that feature requires a cookie to work properly, you are consenting to that cookie's use.  This means that if you click on a link to a video in this (or any other) website, or on a social media feature, that video hosting / social media platform may add cookies to your computer in order to carry out your requested action. Similarly, if you click on the 'Accessibility & Language' link, to launch the 'Recite Me' accessibility toolbar, it will use a cookie to remember your preferences (e.g. read-aloud voice & reading speed, which assistive tools you like to have switched on, and the language to translate to).

These 3rd party sites will also ask you for your cookie preferences when you visit them, separately. If you are concerned about third-party cookies, you could always configure your browser not to accept them but that may prevent some opt-in features on this website from working.  More information on third party cookies can be found at howtogeek.com.

The National University of Ireland Galway does not use malware, spyware, or adware in any form or fashion.

Legal Basis:

For the majority of the activities set out in this statement the Universities Act 1997 and the University Charter and Statutes gives the University legal authority to process your personal data where this is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the University as Data Controller. The University also has the authority to carry out the above activities if these are required to complete the performance of a contract with you.  If you use optional free services, the legal basis is your consent which you can opt into these and withdraw your consent to them.

Security:

NUI Galway uses every appropriate physical and technical security measure to prevent unauthorised access, alteration or destruction of data. These measures are reviewed regularly.

Information Disclosure:

The National University of Ireland, Galway will not disclose any personal information obtained from its Web site to any third party unless it is in accordance with University Policy and applicable law.

Contact Information:

Any queries regarding privacy and this Website can be directed to info@nuigalway.ie

Your rights:

You have a right to access your personal information, to object to the processing of your personal information, to rectify, to erase, to restrict and to port your personal information. For further information please visit: 

(1)  http://gdprandyou.ie/

(2)  https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Home/4.htm

Any requests or objections should be made in writing to the University Data Protection Officer:

The Data Protection Officer, 
NUI Galway, Room A129, 
The Quadrangle, 
NUI Galway, 
University Road, 
Galway 

Email: dataprotection@nuigalway.ie

How to make a complaint:

If you are unhappy with the way in which your personal data has been processed, you may in the first instance contact the University Data Protection Officer using the contact details above.

If you remain dissatisfied, then you have the right to apply directly to the Data Protection Commissioner for a decision. She can be contacted at: -