The European Union passed a sweeping data privacy law, the Data Protection Regulation, that affects businesses and educational institutions around the world. This regulation changes the way organizations can collect, use, and disclose personal information to better protect personal data.
What is Personal Data under the GDPR?
Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (e.g. name, identification number, email address). Under the GDPR, there is another type of personal information referred to as Sensitive Personal Data. Sensitive Personal Data is information concerning racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, criminal records, genetics or biometric health, sex life or sexual orientation.
Why Does the GDPR matter to Marquette?
The GDPR applies to any individual, even if the individual is not an EU citizen, when data is collected, used or disclosed while that individual is physically located in the EU. For example, an American traveling in France decides to fill out an application for admission to Marquette. The data collected while the American is in France is subject to the GDPR, just as the data collected by an EU resident in France is subject to the GDPR
Because Marquette sends and receives students to and from the EU, the GDPR matters to Marquette. Furthermore, the protection of all student, faculty and staff personal data is important to Marquette, and Information Technology Services (ITS) focuses on the protection of data and addressing the relevant data security regulations.
How Could the GDPR affect you?
When the GDPR applies to an individual for whom we have collected personal data, certain rights may be available to him or her. If a student contacts you wishing to exercise a right under the GDPR, please forward that request to dataprivacy@marquette.edu and the appropriate personnel will handle the request.
Data Privacy Protection tips
ITS spends significant time and energy to ensure our electronic systems at Marquette are secure and that data is protected. This is no small task and you are an integral part of Marquette’s data security efforts. Please remember to use only your Marquette email address for university-related communication, lock your computer when you are away from your desk, use Marquette’s OneDrive space to store files, and use department shredding bins to dispose of confidential and sensitive information.
For questions on the GDPR, please contact dataprivacy@marquette.edu