Introduction:

Responsible AI UK (“RAi”, “the programme”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is committed to preserving your privacy. This statement outlines how RAi UK uses and protects personal information that we collect from you. This privacy notice may be supplemented by additional privacy statements, terms or notices provided to you.

Who we are and how to contact us 

RAi UK is a research consortium funded by UKRI with grant reference EP/Y009800/1.

The lead institution is the University of Southampton.  The Unversity of Southampton, which is an exempt charity under the Charities Act 2011, is a chartered corporation, established by Royal Charter in 1952. It’s correspondence address is: University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ. Your data will be held by the University of Southampton.  

To deliver the RAi programme, we work in partnership with the following institutions: University of Nottingham, King’s College London, Queen Mary University London (QMUL), Swansea University, University of Glasgow and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), and with our funder the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). To properly administer RAi UK, we may be required to share personal information we collect from you with our partners. 

This statement, which contains a lot of detail, explains how we collect and use your personal information.  

If you have any questions about this notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact info@rai.ac.uk. 

Contents 

  1. Research participants 
  1. Attendees to events 
  1. Subscribers to our mailing lists and other marketing materials 
  1. Visitors to our website 
  1. Your rights 
  1. Sharing tools and links to Third Party Websites 
  1. Transferring information outside the UK and EU 
  1. Data security 
  1. Automated decision making and profiling 
  1.  Equity information 
  1.  Children’s data 
  1.  Special category data 
  1. Research participants

 

How we obtain personal information and why we have it 

For research projects where you are a direct participant, such as an interviewee or survey responder, the data is provided directly by you for the purposes of the research project. In addition to this general privacy notice, the researcher will explain in detail how your data will be used.  

We may also receive your personal information indirectly, where it is included in a dataset for a research project. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 includes a range of provisions and exemptions. This can allow for actions such as processing without providing a privacy notice, retaining data indefinitely or refusing a data subject’s request for their data to be removed from a project. 

These elements are carefully qualified by requirements to safeguard personal data, use approaches to minimise or reduce the risk of identification and keep that data securely. Other general approaches should ensure that research using personal data: 

  • should not, unless in specific medical contexts, lead to a decision or intervention about an individual 
  • should not identify that individual in the research outputs 
  • should not cause damage or distress to the individual 
  • should, where possible, use techniques such as pseudonymisation and anonymisation. 

 

We use the information in order to: 

Carry out research projects led by RAi UK and its partners, to further RAi UK’s objectives.  

We may share this information with research partners, under contract and data sharing agreements, in order to carry out the research.  

 

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:  

The legitimate interest of RAi UK and its partners to conduct research and further its work. Where we process special category data, we process data as necessary for research purposes, with appropriate conditions and safeguards set by the legislation. 

 

Attendees to events

How we obtain personal information and why we have it 

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons: 

  • You have submitted your contact details and other relevant information when you have registered for one of our virtual or in-person events. 
  • We have recorded any relevant information from your attendance at one of our events.  
  • We have given you the option to provide some equity information, separate from your registration.  
  • You may appear or be included in video, audio, images or transcripts of the event.  

 

We use the information in order to:  

  • Facilitate your attendance at the event.  
  • Make any reasonable adjustments as required, such as physical access to the building or a dietary requirement.  
  • To aggregate any equity information, you and other attendees choose to provide, allowing us to carry out meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting, to inform our aim to ensure wider access and participation in our activities. 
  • Promote our events and their outputs as part of our mission.  

 

We may share this information with:

  • Partners hosting the event, such as a venue provider.  
  • Videos, audio, images or transcripts of the event may be shared on our website or social media platforms.   

 

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:  

  • We have a contractual obligation to retain a record relevant information dependent on your entrance to the event. 
  • We have a legal obligation under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that reasonable adjustments have been made for you to access the event, where you have requested them.  
  • We have a legitimate interest to retain a record of the event, which may include video, audio, images or transcripts that includes you as an attendee.  

Please let Responsible Ai know if you would rather it did not use photographs or recordings of you in this way. You can do this via the consent question asked at registration or by contacting the event organizers in advance. Please also feel free to let any photographers or camera crews working at any events know if you would rather not be photographed or recorded. 

 

Subscribers to our mailing lists and other marketing materials

 

How we obtain personal information and why we have it 

  • You have provided your email address when you signed up to our mailing list.  

We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios: 

  • You have a publicly available email address that meets the ‘corporate subscriber’ exemption in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and the activity we are promoting links with your professional role (e.g., a research speciality or sector expertise).   

We use the information in order to:  

  • Keep you updated with our latest news, events and any other service you have requested.  
  • Contact you in relation to events or projects related to your research speciality or sector expertise.  

 

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:  

  • Your consent in signing up to our mailing list. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting info@rai.ac.uk.  
  • Where we have a legitimate interest to inform you at your publicly available email address that meets the ‘corporate subscriber’ exemption in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). We will state who we are, why we are contacting you and you will be given an option to unsubscribe. 

 

Visitors to our website

As mentioned above, we collect some personal information, such as the IP address of your computer, through the use of website cookies. You can set your preferences for these cookies through our cookie banner. 

 

What are cookies? 

Cookies are small files that are placed on your computer or device by a website when you visit it. They contain details about your use of the website, and they distinguish you from other users. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise you and, for example, remember your preferences, as well as to improve the website. 

You can find out more about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org. 

 

Why do we use cookies? 

We use cookies: 

  • To let you do things on the website – for example, to fill in forms and view content (necessary cookies). 
  • To collect statistics – which helps us improve the website through analysis of usage patterns (for example, to see which pages are the most popular and how users are interacting with them) (analytics cookies). 
  • To allow you to like and share content across social networks (social cookies). 

 

How do I change my cookie settings? 

We require your consent to use analytics and social cookies. 

Most browsers also let you turn off either all or third-party cookies. What you can do depends on the browser you are using. However, please be aware if you reject all cookies, this may impair your ability to use the website. The ability to do this is usually found in the options, settings or preferences menu of your browser or mobile device. 

Check information in your browser’s help section for specific instructions on how to manage cookies. Alternatively, websites such as “All About Cookies” provide comprehensive guidance. 

Guide to managing cookies (link to url: All About Cookies | Online Privacy and Digital Security) 

 

You can opt out of using Google’s analytics cookies by visiting Google’s opt-out page at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. 

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to: 

  • Ask for a copy of your personal information (commonly known as a “subject access request”). 
  • Ask that we update or correct the personal information that we hold about you if you believe it to be inaccurate. 
  • Ask that we erase the personal information that we hold about you, where there is no good reason for us continuing to hold it. We may not need to erase it, but we will need to show that we continue to have a good reason to refuse your request.  
  • Object to our use of your personal information if we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your situation which makes you want to object. We may not need to stop, but we will need to show a good reason to keep using it. You can always ask us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. 
  • Ask that we restrict our use of your personal information so that we are simply storing it, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or our reason for using it. 
  • Request the transfer of your personal information to you or another party. This only applies where you have provided us that information and we are processing it with your consent or to perform a contract with you. 
  • Change your mind and withdraw consent you have given us. 

To exercise any of the above rights, please contact info@rai.ac.uk  

These are legal rights, so they only apply in certain circumstances and are subject to exemptions. 

We may also need to take steps to confirm your identity. This is another security measure to ensure that your personal information is not disclosed or controlled by any person who has no right to receive it. 

If you have concerns about the way we are handling your personal information, you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Sharing tools and links to Third Party Websites

We do not currently use sharing tools. 

 As we want your experience of our website to be as informative and useful as possible, we provide links to websites operated by third parties e.g. to RAi funded projects hosted at institutions across the UK. 

 Please be aware that we do not have any control over third-party websites and that such third-party websites may send their own cookies to users or otherwise collect data or solicit personal information. 

 We cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information you provide whilst visiting such third-party websites and so these are not governed by this privacy policy. We encourage you to review each third-party website’s privacy policy before browsing and interacting with the website in question.

 

Transferring information outside the UK and EU

We are based in the UK. Generally, we hold personal information on servers located within the UK. However, we do use suppliers that operate around the world, which means it is possible that personal information we collect from you may be stored outside of the UK or the EU. Some of our sites may have servers outside of the UK or EU. 

Certain countries outside the UK have a lower standard of protection for personal information, including lower security protections and fewer rights for individuals. Where your personal information is transferred outside the UK to a country which does not offer similar protection, we put in place appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and respects UK data protection laws (such as requiring the recipients to enter into contracts which have been approved by the relevant UK authorities for this purpose). 

Data security

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. We have put in place suitable technical and organisational measures to protect the security of your information. These measures include limiting access to your personal information to those individuals who have a business need to know. 

 

Automated decision making and profiling

As a research programme, we may use personal information in ways which involve ‘automated decision making’ and which might constitute ‘profiling’; however, we do not typically do this in ways which will have a significant legal effect on you. 

We do not make automated decisions based on any particularly sensitive, or ‘special category’ data.  Special category data is information that requires greater protection such as data about your health, disability or ethnic origin.  

When you use our site, we may use the information collected to profile you as a website visitor. This is done to help us monitor the demographics of individuals who are engaging with certain materials where such monitoring is considered to be essential to the core aims of the relevant site – for example to meet our aim of engaging with a diverse cross section of our community in steering projects. This monitoring will be carried in accordance with our cookie policy, and your options around providing this information when you visit our website.      

 

Equity information

RAi UK recognises the importance of building a diverse community. We are committed to promoting and embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and view this as integral to our mission.   

We collect data to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting. When processing special category data on for the purpose of diversity monitoring, we rely on the condition in the Data Protection Act 2018, which allows for processing of certain categories of special category data for monitoring equality of opportunity or treatment. This statistical analysis will not identify you or lead to any decision making about you.  

 

Childrens’ data

In our general operations, we do not provide services directly to children or proactively collect their personal information. Where a particular project or event engages with children, RAi UK (or its research partners) will ensure that it plans and implements the project according to the data protection principles and guidance provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Any research projects involving childrens’ data will be subject to an appropriate research ethics process. 

 

Special category data

Certain types of information require greater protection, such as information about your health or ethnicity. The legal conditions we can rely on to process these ‘special category’ data require us to have an ‘appropriate policy document’. For this purpose, we rely on the University of Southampton’s Data Protection Policy Document.   

The University of Southampton policy sets out our procedures for complying with the data protection principles when processing this special category data. We also comply with University of Southampton policies relating to retention and erasure of this special category data. 

 

Updates to this statement 

We may update this statement. If we make substantial changes, we will bring these to your attention via our website. You can access the latest version of this statement on our main website.