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‘my-Ed’ Virtual Learning Platform (VLP) privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated in July 2022.

Kent County Council respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Who we are

Kent County Council (KCC) collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

The ‘my-Ed’ Virtual Learning Platform (VLP) is developed and maintained by Kent County Council. It provides online academic and wellbeing activities, and courses tailored to the student’s needs.

Each Kent County Council team or other service that supports a student using the VLP provides a separate privacy notice which provide further detail as to the purpose and legal basis for that service.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of providing ‘my-Ed’ VLP to you we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • personal details (your first name or the ‘first name’ you liked to be called, unique pupil number, imagery suitability age, subject/level mapping)
  • the IP address you used to access the VLP, which is held at the server level for 7-days
  • your site interaction usage data; including learning objectives and course progress
  • name and email address of support staff supporting your use of the “my-Ed” VLP platform (from the Kent County Council Children Young People and Education directorate, schools, colleges, or other partner organisations).

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • provide academic and usage reports based on site, activity and course engagement whilst using the ‘my-Ed’ VLP
  • monitor the levels that students are working towards and have previously achieved
  • enable integrated working with other teams and organisations to ensure you receive the right support at the right time
  • evaluate and quality assure the service we provide
  • analyse service provision and effectiveness.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks in the public interest.

We rely on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article (6)(1)(e) - Public task: the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions (task or function has a clear basis in law).

How long your personal data will be kept

The ‘my-Ed’ VLP will hold your personal information securely and retain it from the point you join ‘my-Ed’ VLP until you decide to leave, or if your account has been inactive for 182 days (6 months). The online account and associated user data will be deleted after termination.

Who we share your personal information with

We will share your information with:

  • teams within KCC working to improve outcomes for children and young people
  • commissioned providers of local authority services (such as education services)
  • schools.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

  • know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
  • ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
  • ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
  • object to direct marketing
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

  • ask us to delete information we hold about you
  • have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
  • object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
  • object to how we are using your information
  • stop us using your information in certain ways

We will always seek to comply with your request, however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note, your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under UK GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used/accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Contact

Please contact your school's headteacher to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.