There are many situations where the University might engage a third party to carry out activities on their behalf, perhaps some specialist expertise or a software platform.
Where the third party will be collecting or storing the personal data of our staff, students, or customers on our behalf they are acting as ‘data processors.’ The University is the ‘data controller’ and determining how the data is used; the supplier or ‘data processor’ is carrying out our instructions. If the data processor is using its own processors, such as a hosting provider, these are called ‘subprocessors.’
In data protection law both ‘controllers’ and ‘processors’ have obligations under data protection law. If a processor suffers a data breach, the University could be liable for substantial monetary penalties.
Whenever the University as ‘controller’ uses a processor it needs to ensure that there is a formal written contract in place with the supplier. The contract needs to cover a range of standard provisions stating that the processor must:
You can assess this in the contract checker document (.docx).