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Data protection

What information do we collect?

Centria may collect information regarded as necessary from its users for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy. The purpose of the data collection influences the nature of the data collected.

Your personal information may be collected when you register as a user of Centria’s Services, in connection to using our services, when taking part in competitions, campaigns or inquiries, as well as communicating with us. Centria collects, amongst others personal data belonging to the categories listed below.

1. The information you provide to Centria

As you use our services, we may ask you for some information that you can decide to provide, or not, to Centria. Some of the data we collect is statutory, for instance, if you are a student or a staff member at Centria or if you collaborate on one of our projects. We collect information, as set by law so that we can complete our task as a university of applied sciences; we require specific data to fulfil our obligations.

If the collection of data is not related to a legal university activity, we will ask for your consent to the data disclosure and storage.

We store and collect the following information throughout different contexts and services:

We collect information in various ways, for example, when you are selected as a student at Centria, when you provide information when signing up, using the services, or participating in Centria’s competitions, draws or surveys.

Teaching situation can be video recorded and distributed in different ways for teaching purposes.

2. Information observed and derived from the use of services

We may collect the following information about you and your use of Centria’s services:

Why do we handle personal information?

We handle your personal information for one or more of the purposes defined below and concerning our statutory duty as a provider of education and as our operating area’s developer.

1.Our role as a service provider

Your personal information may be used to implement Centria’s services, identify users, and to make Centria’s services more personal. We may use your personal data to respond to your requests and questions, fulfil your requests, safeguard your security and prevent any service abuse.

2. Development of our services

Your personal information can be used to develop Centria’s services and improve user experience. We can combine the data collected in connection with various services and applications as long as that the data is collected for the same purpose. We can make statistics aiming at developing services and applications.

3. Marketing and customer communication

Your personal information may be used for marketing and customer communication purposes within Centria’s services. We may use the data to send you notifications about services we provide that may concern you or to contact you concerning our customer service or our services.

How do we store and combine personal data?

As described above, Centria’s Services may store information about the use of Centria’s services to enable various functionalities. Centria stores derived information separately from the actual personal register used to identify the user.

Do we disclose any information?

Centria does not sell or otherwise disclose your personal information outside of Centria. However, Centria may disclose your personal information outside in the following circumstances: disclose your personal information to the outside of the centre. However, Centria may disclose your personal information to an organisation outside of Centria in the following situations:

1.With your consent

Your personal information may be disclosed upon your express consent, for instance concerning the use of a service offered by a third party.

2. Organisations

Your personal information will not be displayed to Centria’s services’ other users, as a rule. Some of the services provided by Centria do allow you to share your information with other users. We encourage you to consider carefully before you share your personal information or other information with other users.

3. Subcontractors and service providers

Centria may use subcontractors and service providers to provide technical support for their services, or for customer service, user data management and analysis, surveys, customer communication or for the implementation of various campaigns. We may disclose your personal information to Centria’s subcontractors and service providers only to the extent the data usage is involved in the implementation of Centria’s services and the applications described in this Privacy Statement.

Such third parties may not use your information for any purpose other than those described in this Privacy Statement and determined by Centria. Centria obliges them to keep your information secret and adequately provide adequate security to protect your personal information.

4. International Data Transfers

Centria strives to implement services and handle your personal information primarily using actors and services located within the EU or EEA.

However, in some cases, Centria may use services that may also be carried out with other operators, services and servers located elsewhere, and your personal information may be transferred between countries. Such transfers may include the transfer of personal data to countries located outside of the EU or EEA, where personal data processing legislation differs from the requirements as set by the Finnish law, such as the United States. Centria will also take care of the adequate level of protection of your personal information, including agreeing on the confidentiality and processing of personal data as required by law, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission and otherwise processing of personal data following this Privacy Statement.

5. Research activities

In some cases, we may disclose information for scientific or other research activities, provided that this information has first been converted to a format where individuals can no longer be identified.

6. Compulsory data delivery as required by law

Your personal information may be disclosed following the requirements of the competent authority and the statutory requirements.

How do we ensure that the information is up to date?

We try our best to upkeep the personal information we hold by removing unnecessary data and updating outdated information.

Please note that it is up to you to update the personal information you provide us if any changes occur. Students and staff may update their information through Centria’s internal services. Instructions for using Centria’s services are available in Centria’s internal policies. External may reach out to tietosuojavastaava@centria.fi for more information.

What do we do to protect your personal information?

We pay particular attention to data protection and security when designing, implementing and maintaining our services. We use appropriate physical, technical, and administrative protective measures to protect your personal information from abuse. Appointed staff only deal with data protection and security. We restrict access to systems and databases gathering personal data only to designated individuals, within the framework of the requirements (need and right) of their work to handle the data in question.

We implement data protection and security by taking into account our privacy and security when planning, by training our staff and regularly inspecting our services’ compliance. We consider the risks of data misuse and other similar risks, by acknowledging the misuse likelihood and the nature of the protected data.

Centria can also use subcontractors and service providers to implement its services and to process personal data. In this case, we will arrange for your personal information to be processed under the legislation, good privacy practices and this Privacy Policy.

How do we use cookies?

Centria uses cookies and other similar processes intended to support the provision and development of Centria’s sites and services, as well as for targeting content and communications. Our pages may also include other third-party components, such as elements related to social networking services.

How long will we keep your information?

We will keep your information following current legislation and for as long as is necessary for the purposes defined in this Privacy Policy. Once the reason for us processing your personal information ends, we will remove your personal information.

Centria’s User ID protocol is described at http://www.centria.fi/cou-idp/

Please note that some of Centria’s internal services related to student administration, such as learning environments, may contain interactive and communicative features such as comment sections or forums, the content you create may also be visible after the end of the user relationship. Centria does try, however, to remove content, for example, after the end of studies.

What are your rights?

By law, you have the right to check what information we have collected from you. You also have the right to claim for correction or deletion of incorrect, defective, unnecessary or obsolete personal data.

You can use your rights by contacting our customer service below, by administering your user account in certain Centria’s Services, and by utilising the functionalities offered by your device and by our apps and services.

Any identification request to identify a user must be sent from the same email address associated with the verification request identifier. Information on registered personal data will be forwarded to the same e-mail address. You can make one inspection request free of charge once a year.

You can also deny Centria from making use of your personal information for direct marketing, customer satisfaction and other surveys. However, we may still send you notifications about our services, such as changes or faults and malfunctions.

You can request Centria to remove your information from the user register by contacting our customer service. Please note that the Center has statutory obligations to retain information such as student and staff information.

Changes to this Privacy Statement

Centria continuously develops its services and may update this Privacy Statement from time to time without prior notice. However, if this Privacy Statement is substantially altered, Centria will notify all users at the beginning of the updated Privacy Statement and on its website for a minimum of 30 days. Changes may also be related to changes in legislation. We recommend that you visit this Privacy Statement from time to time to follow any potential any changes that may occur.

Registrar contact information

The registrar for your personal data is Centria University of Applied Sciences Ltd, Talonpojankatu 2, 67100 Kokkola.

You may contact tietosuojavastaava@centria.fi for any privacy and data protection issues.

Please note that for security purposes, we may need to verify your identity before completing any request concerning your personal information.

All of Centria UAS’ English language registers and data protection reports (as well as information system reports) will be centrally published on this site. All Finnish language registers and reports are located on this page.