UCAS to change application form after Information Commissioner finds breach of rules
The UCAS application form is to be changed after the Information Commissioner’s Office expressed concern that the Universities and Colleges Admission Service had broken electronic marketing rules.
The ICO launched an investigation after a newspaper article in March 2014 about the form.
This pointed out that the form only allowed applicants to opt-out of receiving marketing from commercial companies if they un-ticked three boxes covering marketing emails, post and text messages.
The wording of the opt out also meant that un-ticking these boxes would result in the applicant not receiving information about career opportunities and education providers or health information, the ICO said.
The watchdog concluded that this approach “meant applicants felt obliged to let UCAS use their information for commercial purposes, otherwise they’d potentially miss out on important information about their career or education”.
This constituted a breach of the Data Protection Act, which requires personal information to be processed fairly, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which govern electronic marketing and require consent to be given freely and for a specific purpose, according to the ICO.
The watchdog’s Head of Enforcement, Stephen Eckersley, said: “Each year, more than half a million teenagers register with UCAS to apply for a place in higher education. UCAS has a responsibility to ensure that applicants can make free and balanced choices.
“By failing to give these applicants a clear option to avoid marketing, they were being unfairly faced with the default option of having their details used for commercial purposes. Our guidance is clear that consent must be freely given and specific.”
He added: “We are pleased that UCAS has agreed to address this issue and will now update their form so that people can make an informed decision on whether they are happy to receive marketing, or not. This can only be a good thing for our aspiring students by helping them to keep up-to-date on the information they want, while avoiding the hassle of unwanted marketing.”
The chief executive of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, has now signed an undertaking on its behalf. This will see the service update its registration form and privacy policy so that applicants can make a clear and informed decision about how their information is used.
UCAS will also carry out user testing to make sure these updated documents are fully understood by its users.
Former and current UCAS applicants are also able to change their marketing preferences on the UCAS website, or by using the unsubscribe options in any emails they have received.
In the letter Curnock Cook said UCAS was committed to making the necessary changes to its admissions systems to satisfy the ICO’s requirements.
“However,” she added, “your office will be aware that UCAS faces significant challenges supporting legacy IT infrastructure such as admissions systems, which currently makes it very difficult to perform modifications to IT systems, whilst still maintaining essential application services. In assigning tasks to meet the terms of the undertaking, it has been necessary to commit a significant proportion of our available IT development resources.”
Curnock Cook also warned that should an unforeseen IT incident occur in the period prior to Confirmation & Clearing (C&C) that potentially undermines its delivery by UCAS, then it might “well be necessary to divert IT resources allocated to the undertaking to any remediation activities necessary to ensure the delivery of C&C.”
