Website Privacy Notice

Guildhall School is a department of the City of London Corporation (“the City of London”)

This specific privacy notice covers activities relating to the provision of the following web domains:

• gsmd.ac.uk
• resources.gsmd.ac.uk
• alumni.gsmd.ac.uk

It is a part of the overarching privacy notice found on the Privacy Notices page of our website.

The collection of personal data for other purposes is covered elsewhere.

Guildhall School is committed to protecting your privacy; this privacy notice explains how we use information about you and how we protect your privacy. If you have any concerns or questions about how the School looks after your personal information please contact the City of London’s Data Protection Officer, also the Comptroller and City Solicitor, Michael Cogher, at information.officer@cityoflondon.gov.uk or alternatively contact the School via marketing@gsmd.ac.uk

What personal data is collected about you and what it is used for?

We log your Internet Protocol (IP) address, in order to receive and send information from and to you over the internet. Our website also uses cookies to enable online transactions, understand how people use our website and inform our digital advertising. 

Whenever we ask you to provide your personal information we will let you know why we are asking, and how we will use your information, by directing you towards the relevant privacy notice.

Cookies (see below)

Cookies are files stored in your browser and are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. Some features on this site will not function if you do not allow cookies. Cookies collect information about your computer, including your IP address, operating system and browser type, for statistical, non-identifiable purposes. They allow us to estimate information such as audience size and usage patterns, for example whether the visitor has been to the site before, which country they are in and what site referred the visitor to the web page.

Compliance cookies

This type of cookie allows us to know whether or not you have given consent to the use of cookies and therefore do not need to be presented with this consent request message again.

Analytics cookies

These websites uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies, text files which will be stored on your computer and enable us to analyse your use of our website.

Google Analytics uses only first-party cookies. This means that all cookies set by Google Analytics for the Guildhall School send data only to the School’s servers. This data cannot be altered or retrieved by any service on another domain and we will never disclose information stored in your cookie to third parties.

The Google Analytics Terms of Service, which all Analytics customers adhere to, prohibits the tracking or collection of personal information (such as name and email address) using Google Analytics or associating personal information with web analytics information.

This website also uses Hotjar. We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf. For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site.

First party session cookies

Guildhall School eGo, enquiries and online applications systems (resources.gsmd.ac.uk) uses first party session cookies for security. There is an exception in the law for cookies which are deemed as "strictly necessary". The term "strictly necessary" means that such storage of or access to information should be essential, rather than reasonably necessary, and this includes cookies used for security requirements.

Third Party Cookies

Cookies may be set through our website by other companies. Data may be collected by these companies that enable them to serve up adverts on other sites that are relevant to your interests.

Can I opt-out of cookies?

Yes. This site uses the Civic cookie banner which allows users to customise their cookies and opt out of tracking.

Further info

The Information Commissioner’s Office provides some advice about cookies and their use. It also provides a link to www.aboutcookies.org which is run by the law firm Pinsent Masons. This website provides even more information about cookies, including how you can delete any cookies and how to allow trusted sites to store their cookies on your computer.

Log files

User access data is collected on these systems for system administration, identifying errors and for producing usage statistics. Logged information includes data such as login status, IP address and device information such as browser, operating system and device type.

Why we are allowed to use your personal data?

The processing of your personal information for the above purposes is necessary for legitimate interests to enable your access to the service.

Who we can share your personal data with?

Payments: We do not share personal and financial information provided to us in payment processes, nor do we share this information with third parties.

Third party Websites: Where we provide links to third party websites, such sites are not controlled by us and are not covered by our terms and conditions. These links are provided for your convenience only. If you access these sites by using the links provided, the operators of these sites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their privacy policy, consequently you are advised to check the privacy policy of such third parties before providing information to them.

How long we keep your personal data for?

Personal data will be processed in accordance with the School’s retention policies published: Privacy Notices page of our website.

Cookies