Privacy Policy

Introduction

The Royal Drawing School is committed to protecting the personal information that you share with us. We want to maintain the trust that our students, visitors and supporters have in the School, especially when using our website or being contacted by us directly.

The information that you share with us enables you to decide how you would like to hear from us, tailoring the information that you receive. It also helps us to get a better understanding of the School’s audience so we can continue to deliver, develop and evaluate the courses, events, exhibitions and opportunities that interest you.

Our privacy policy provides a detailed account of the information that we collect, why we collect it and how we use it. It also details how we keep your information secure. We may update this policy from time to time, without notice to you, and our most up to date version will be available on our website.

By providing us with personal information, you consent to the collection and use of this information in accordance with this privacy policy. We will not keep your personal data for longer than is necessary.


GDPR

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a regulation which enhances and strengthens data protection within the European Union and the United Kingdom. The Royal Drawing School is legally obliged to comply with the provisions of Data Protection Act 1998 and has made changes and updated our policies to ensure we are compliant with GDPR.


What our Policy covers:

  • The personal information that we collect
  • Why we collect this information and how we use it
  • How we keep this information secure
  • How you can remove your personal information from our records
  • Rights to access personal information
  • Further information on data protection
  • How to contact us


What personal information do we collect?

The School generally collects your information when you decide to interact with us. This could be through booking a public course or open day, applying to courses such as The Drawing Year or for scholarships, attending one of our events or an external event run by the School or signing up to our e-newsletter. 

Information is largely collected through our website but it might also be over the phone, in person or via email. The School also monitors how our audience interacts with our website so that we can make sure it is functioning in a way that works best when you are booking a course or simply looking for information. 

We might collect information when you:

  • Visit our website (see cookies policy)
  • Book a course or event
  • Attend one of our full-time courses
  • Sign up to our e-newsletter
  • Apply to a course or residency
  • Apply for a scholarship or bursary
  • Attend an external event run by the School
  • Buy an artwork
  • Make a donation to the School

In collecting personal information from you, our aim is to contribute to the smooth running and development of the School, and to let you know about things that might be of interest to you.

Depending on the nature of your relationship with the School, we collect and process the following examples of personal information, although we may, at times, also need to collect

other personal information that is not listed here:

  • Basic information (e.g. your name, date of birth, gender)
  • Contact information (e.g. address, telephone number, email address)
  • Sensitive information (e.g. ethnicity, medical information, passport details, tax credit information, bank details, art work purchases)
  • Education information (e.g. the institutions you have previously studied in, courses you have taken, your level of education, student report cards and assessments)
  • Publicly available images: we may use publicly sourced images to help identify individuals who attend our special events
  • Publicly available information such as biographies, articles or employment history

Legitimate Interest
We carefully consider whether there is a legitimate interest in the affairs of the School, before making direct contact. We will always ensure that we use data proportionally, with a minimal impact on personal privacy.


Why we collect this information and how we use it

The School collects information from you to guarantee we continue to provide a service that maintains the high level of efficiency and personal communication that our students and supporters expect.  We might use your information in the following ways: 

  • To carry out administrative functions (e.g. completing application forms, booking courses, taking payments)
  •  To send you information that we think might be of interest to you
  • To invite you to events 
  • To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including health & safety and safeguarding
  • To improve our services
  • To handle complaints
  • To monitor student progress
  • To conduct investigations and due diligence
  • To approach potential supporters*
  • To undertake research
  • To further our charitable mission

 * We may carry out analysis of the personal information of a small number of individuals who we think might be interested in supporting the School. This may be via Royal Drawing School course bookings, art purchases, third party recommendations or publicly available resources. To this information we may add publicly available information relating to: residential location, wealth and assets, career, donations to other organisations, hobbies and interests.  This helps us to create a profile of your preferences and your ability and capacity to support us. We can then contact you in the most appropriate way, and with the most relevant information.


Website
When you visit our website we collect an automatically generated IP (Internet Protocol) address. This is a code individual to the device being used which contains information about the geographical location of the device, the time and date of the visit, the pages of the website that were visited and the duration of the visit. This information is pseudonymised to protect your personal information and your privacy.


Google Analytics
Your IP address and information about your behaviour on our website are collected and processed anonymously by Google Analytics in a way that means it is impossible for you to be identified as an individual. Analytics also uses cookies to provide us with information about the make-up of our website’s audience and allows us to competently manage the site, updating it according to the way in which our audience interact with it.  This data is shared between the Royal Drawing School and Google Analytics, in a secure system.  We may share Analytics data with other parties or tools, such as Google AdWords or Hot Jar if website users have consented to this using the website consent pop-up. 


Cookies
Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity. Google Analytics is a non-invasive form of third party cookie. Retargeting cookies are used on our website so visitors to www.royaldrawingschool.org who have consented to their use, may see Royal Drawing School advertising on other websites. When you log on to the website for the first time, you will be given the option to choose from Necessary, Analytics and Advertising cookies.

We also use cookies from social media networks such as Facebook – to find out how cookies work on Facebok, please visit their website here. We collect anonymised data on people who have opted into Advertising Cookies on our site to retarget through Facebook advertising. 

You can set your browser not to accept cookies, the website below give more information on how to do this. However in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result. For further information visit: www.aboutcookies.orgor www.allaboutcookies.org.


Third Party Organisations
The Royal Drawing School does not share your personal information with any third parties, nor do we buy contact details, personal information or lists from third party organisations. From time to time we might let you know about an event or opportunity by a partner organisation that we think you might be interested in.


E-Newsletters and Mailings
The School would like to send you information about courses, events, exhibitions and opportunities which may be of interest to you. You can either sign up to our e-newsletters via our website or, if you have requested to be, you will be added to our mailing list when booking a course, event or open day via our website. 

If you have consented to receive marketing information, there is always the opportunity to unsubscribe at the bottom of every e-newsletter. 

You also have the right to stop us from contacting you via the post. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes in our mailings, please email admin@royaldrawingschool.org to let us know and we will remove your information from our lists.


Social Media
If your social media settings on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram allow, we may have permission to use information which you have shared on such sites (e.g. your location and interests) to advertise the School’s activities to you. This information is pseudonymised and the School has no direct access to your personal information from these sites. 


Photography & Filming
We regularly photograph the School’s activities to use for marketing and fundraising purposes – images provide a great way of giving the public and our supporters a better understanding of what we do. The School requires verbal and written consent from students taking part in all courses before a session is photographed. We may also ask for consent in the form of student contracts or release forms.  Most of our public events are photographed professionally and by attending the event you agree to be photographed. 

The School might use images for the following hard copy and digital marketing purposes:

  • Brochures
  • Leaflets
  • Posters
  • Books or publications
  • Website
  • Online advertising
  • Printed advertising
  • Social media
  • Outdoor advertising

Should you wish for a photograph of yourself to be removed from our online platforms (for example our website or social media) please email admin@royaldrawingschool.org and include the location in which we can find the image. Please note that any print material cannot be revoked once published (where consent was previously given). 


Data Retention
We regularly review the personal data that we hold, and proactively remove data when we think that there is no longer a legitimate interest in the School’s affairs.


How we keep your information secure

The Royal Drawing School adopts robust processes, appropriate technologies and policies so that the information we have about you is protected from unauthorized access or improper use. Our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and monitored. Within our offices our staff receive training on handling data securely.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Your personal information is held securely within our password protected internal IT systems. We use programmes including:

We also hold information on Royal Drawing School servers located in our Shoreditch Headquarters and on The Cloud which are protected by high levels of data security. 

Whilst we will strive to ensure the protection of your information through all means available to us, no data transmission over the internet is guaranteed to be completely secure and all systems can be the target of hacking and cyber breaches.


Rights to access information

You have the right to access the information that we hold about you. If you would like to request a copy you will be required to complete a Subject Access Request Form for which there will be a £10.00 fee.

However, in instances where compliance with the Subject Access Request will impose significant costs on the School, the School may make an additional charge as a contribution towards the full costs of supplying the requested material. In such circumstances, the School will confirm the additional fee payable on receipt of the Subject Access Request and will provide a response to the request once payment has been received.

The Royal Drawing School aims to comply with the requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible, but will ensure it is provided within 30 days, other than in exceptional circumstances, unless exceptions apply. In such cases, the reason for any delay will be explained in writing to the person making the request.


Contact us
If you have an queries about this Policy you can contact us in the following ways:

Email: admin@royaldrawingschool.org

Telephone: 0207 613 8500

Post: Royal Drawing School, 19 – 22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3SG

Further information
To find out more about GDPR and data protection laws, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk

Disclaimer
Although every effort has been made to ensure the information in this policy is accurate at the time of publication, the Royal Drawing School does not accept any liability for error or omission.