Alumni privacy notice

We collect personal information that helps us you as a member of a recognised alumni association of the University of Pretoria and the Convocation, identify you, and stay in touch with you to share the latest news, relevant academic research, and career advancement opportunities.

We collect:

• your contact information (e.g., name, home address, telephone number(s), fax numbers, email addresses)
• your ethnic group
• your background information (e.g., UP qualifications obtained and UP residence)
• your identity document or passport number
• information about your interests and hobbies
• your occupation, job title and industry in which you work

We generate personal information about you in the form of records.

We generate:

• records of your participation in events
• records of your membership and participation in the Convocation, alumni associations, groups and clubs

We need your personal information to provide UP Alumni services to you.

Personal information is essential throughout your UP journey, from the day you apply to UP to when you become a UP Alumni. We use your personal information when:

• you interact with and take part in alumni activities;
• you are a member of the Alma Mater Fund and we collect and process your debit order and library access fee;
• you enter or leave our premises or facilities and we track you when you swipe your access card or scan your fingerprint;
•  you sign up for Alumni Connect and we share your information with Headhunter Systems Limited who manages Alumni Connect. For more information about how we use your information on this platform go to the UP Alumni Connect privacy notice;
• you join an alumni club or interest group and we share your information with its other members; and
• you book to attend a University event and we use your information to confirm your booking and process your payment.

We process your personal information because it is in your or our legitimate interest to do so.

• When you contact us by social media, email, telephone, or online chat, we use the personal information we collect to reply to, investigate, and resolve your query, complaint, or request.
• When we include your name, academic qualification awarded, and academic achievement awarded (e.g., Dean’s list, distinction) in the relevant graduation ceremony programme, live graduation ceremony, YouTube video of the event, and Yearbook. If you do not want us to include your details in the live graduation ceremony or the YouTube video of the event, please contact [email protected]. 

We process your personal information because we are legally required to do so.

• When we produce reports and returns for funding agencies, government departments, and public bodies.
• When we must facilitate graduate participation in national surveys.
• When we take steps to ensure that your personal information is complete, accurate, and up to date. For instance, when we see that your email address is no longer valid we will try to obtain your current, valid email address. We may obtain information from third parties to maintain our database.

We process your personal information with your consent.

• When you subscribe to our newsletter and the Tukkie Magazine you receive the correspondence, publication and notifications by email. You can unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email or by contacting us.
• When you give us permission to use your personal information for research purposes.
• When we verify your UP academic qualifications (or use service providers to do so) to an external party (e.g., your prospective employer).

We process your personal information for historical, statistical or research purposes.

• When we contact you to participate in institutional and research surveys and analyse the results of the research.

We only use service providers we trust and who will keep your personal information secure, and we have contracts in place to ensure that they do – whether they are local or abroad.

We use service providers to help us:

• communicate with you;
• manage academic transcripts, events, career and other services;
• monitor the effectiveness of our services;
• manage our business, (e.g., accountants and professional advisors;
• provide IT services; and
• deliver teaching and learning services to you (e.g., our learner management system and online invigilation technology).

We only use suppliers and service providers we trust, and who have agreed to keep your personal information secure and confidential, and to only use it for the purposes for which we shared it with them.

Some of the service providers that we use may be located in other countries. These countries may not have the same levels of protection of personal information as South Africa, in which case those service providers must undertake to protect the personal information of our alumni to the same level that we do.

We provide for appropriate safeguards by means of contracts between us and our foreign service providers.

Sometimes the law requires that we share your information, for example, the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997

We have reasonable security measures in place to protect your personal information.

Our security measures are in place to protect your personal information from being:

• lost
• misused
• accessed without authorisation
• altered
• destroyed

We base our security measures on the sensitivity of the personal information that we hold.

We regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks.

No system is perfect, and we cannot guarantee that we will never experience a breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards, but we regularly monitor our systems for vulnerabilities.

We will let you know of any breaches that may affect your personal information.

If something should happen, we have taken steps to minimise the threat to your privacy, and we will let you know if your personal information has been compromised. We will also let you know how you can help minimise the impact of the breach.

You can help keep your information secure by being aware of how you communicate.

While our servers are protected, emails can still be intercepted. It is better not to share personal information with us in an email.

Rather, give us a call or complete our online contact forms.

You may ask us about your personal information.

You have the right to know when we collect and use your personal information, and to ask us what we know about you and what we do with that information.

You may access your personal information.

You may ask to access your personal information by sending an email to [email protected]. We may take one month to respond to your request and may charge a fee in some circumstances. We will let you know if this is the case.

You have control over your personal information.

You may ask that we update incorrect personal information, or complete personal information that may be incomplete.

You may ask that we delete your personal information.

You may ask to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

You may ask that we reuse your personal information for your own purposes across different services.

Under certain circumstances you may object to the processing of your personal information.

You may object to automated decision-making and profiling.

You may ask that a human review any automated decisions we made about you, express your point of view about it and obtain an explanation of the decision. You may challenge any automated decision made about you.

You may ask that we restrict our use of your personal information.

You have the right to unsubscribe.

You have the right to unsubscribe from any direct marketing we send you.