The experience of taking (and stopping) weight-loss injectables, experts by experience project privacy notice

The experience of taking (and stopping) weight-loss injectables, experts by experience project is part of University of Surrey.  We are registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (our notification number is Z6346945) and we are committed to ensuring that the personal data we process is handled in accordance with data protection legislation. We have a named Data Protection Officer, who can be contacted via dataprotection@surrey.ac.uk. 

One of our responsibilities is to tell you about the different ways we collect and use your personal data. This statement provides details about these uses. In addition to this statement, you may be given further information about the uses of your personal data when you use certain services offered by the University of Surrey.

The experience of taking (and stopping) weight-loss injectables expert by experience project holds and processes personal data about participants who agree to contribute to our patient and public involvement and engagement work. Participants will provide us with contact details to arrange participation and personal data so that we can describe the group who have been involved. We will therefore collect:

• Your email address and phone number
• Your use of with weight-loss injectables
• Your postcode, ethnicity, age, gender identity, religion, body mass index (if you choose to share this information), name of weight-loss injectable you are taking.

We will collect this data through an online survey and store it in a spreadsheet at the University of Surrey. We will then ask you to participate in a recorded interview or focus group to discuss your experiences and views on weight loss injectables to inform our research in this area.

The University collects only the data we need and we keep the data up to date and only for as long as it is needed. 

We collect your personal data in order to:

• Describe the group that contributes to this patient and public involvement and engagement work
• To contact you to arrange your participation
• Provide payment (as a voucher) for your participation.

We take our obligations for data handling very seriously and it is therefore important for you to know the lawful basis for us processing your information:

We process your personal and special category data because you give us your consent, specifically to be contacted by The experience of taking (and stopping) weight-loss injectables, experts by experience project. If at any point after you have provided us with your personal data you decide you do not wish to be contacted or would like to update your details, please contact Raluca Capaian on rc00408@surrey.ac.uk 

We do not use the data we collect to make decisions about individuals or to analyse information on an individual level.

The University processes personal data and special category data in accordance with data protection legislation and its own Data Protection Policy. 

We collate the responses you make to the online survey and in the focus group so that your confidentiality is maintained.

We keep your personal data in accordance with the University’s retention schedules. We will only retain the information until the payment for your participation has been processed and we have sent you a summary of the discussion that took place in the focus group. We do not expect this to take longer than two weeks from the focus group.

We will not share your data with anyone outside of The experience of taking (and stopping) weight-loss injectables, experts by experience project team. The Team consists of Raluca Capaian (PhD student), Dr Pippa Lally (Senior Lecturer), Dr Martin Whyte (Associate Professor) and Dr Saskia Sanderson (Visiting Senior Lecturer) at the University of Surrey.

As an individual whose data we process (a data subject), you have certain rights in relation to the processing. You can find detailed information about your rights as a data subject on the University’s webpage. 

You have the right to:

• withdraw your consent for us to process your personal data
• to ask us to confirm that your personal data is being processed and to access (i.e. have a copy) of that data as well as to be provided with supplemental information about the processing.
• request that we rectify any inaccuracies where the data we hold on you is inaccurate or incomplete
• to have your data erased by us, although in certain circumstances we may not be able to do this.  The circumstances where this applies can be found in the data subject rights information on the University’s webpage
• to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain ways
• to obtain your personal data for reuse
• to object to certain processing of your personal data.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact dataprotection@surrey.ac.uk. 

You also have the right to complain independently to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the way in which we process your personal data, if you are not satisfied with our response to your concerns.