Respondus Proctoring Privacy Notice

Information you need to know

The School of Law is part of Liverpool John Moores University. See further information on the institution.

Liverpool John Moores University is the Data Controller.

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at DPO@ljmu.ac.uk

LJMU takes your privacy very seriously.  This privacy notice explains how we use your personal information and your rights regarding that information. We will always use your data as set out in the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and all current Data Protection Legislation.  We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use your data and to meeting our data protection obligations.

For information about how the wider university uses personal data please see the Privacy Notice section of our website.

What information are we collecting?

Respondus Monitor uses a student webcam to record audio and video data of the student for the duration of an exam to provide a form of remote invigilation. This is stored for the purposes of reviewing if academic misconduct is suspected.

Lockdown browser requires permission to install and run. This is for the purpose of closing down other applications and is not used for any data collection or monitoring purposes.

Why are we collecting your data and what is the legal basis for this?

LJMU will collect personal data from you for several reasons, and will at all times do so in compliance with the principles of the GDPR, and for one of the legal basis set out in Article 6 of the Regulation.

The Professional Body that accredits the Legal Practice Course (The Solicitors Regulation Authority, referred to as SRA) stipulates a supervision requirement for all Stage 1 (as defined as  in the Programme Specification) online exams to be monitored and invigilated using a proctoring software. The University is delivering a proctoring solution using the Respondus Lockdown Browser and Monitor software.

The lawful basis is public task under Article 6(1)(e).

Who has access to this data?

Respondus Monitor will have access to the data as the software provider.

Your personal data will be used only by relevant LJMU staff where the data is necessary for them to undertake their designated role including:

  • The Module tutors for the relevant Stage 1 modules.
  • Academic Registry
  • Student Governance
  • Academic Misconduct Panel members (if Academic Misconduct was suspected)

Please note, that the monitoring and recording using Respondus Monitor will only be viewed by the Module tutors, unless there is a suspicious behaviour flagged by the software. In this case, the Module Tutor would review the recording and potentially refer to the Academic Registry

We would not share this data with any other external bodies.

How does the university protect your data?

The university takes Data Protection very seriously and at all times your personal data will be handled in line with the university’s Information Security Policy.

For how long does the university keep your data?

The data is held in secure cloud locations by the software provider Respondus Monitor for a period of two years.

The staff and departments named above can access this information during this period. This would only be accessed if at the time of the online examination any flags of suspicious behaviour were identified.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request, this could be in a portable electronic format
  • require the university to change incorrect or incomplete data if you think that it is inaccurate or out of date
  • require the university to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary or legally required for the purposes of processing

What if you do not provide data?

The SRA will not accredit (recognise) any online assessment completion for Stage 1 exams that have not been completed using a proctoring software.

All students do have the opportunity to defer this assessment to the next assessment point as part of the Academic Framework Regulations and the associated Personal Circumstances Policy and the Managing Assessment During the Covid Pandemic policies.

Transfers of data outside the UK

Generally, we do not send your personal data outside the UK. However, in some specific cases we may  transfer the personal data we collect  to countries outside the UK in order to perform our contract with you/or a contract with another organisation that requires your personal data i.e. a collaboration agreement with a university based outside of the UK. Where we do this, we will ensure that your personal information is protected by way of an ‘adequacy regulation’ with the UK or by putting alternative appropriate measures in place to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects the UK laws on data protection, for example model contractual clauses, data sharing/data processing agreement and binding corporate rules (where applicable).

Automated decision making

We will not make any decisions about you automatically using a computer, based on your personal data. All decisions affecting you will be taken by a human.

How to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office?

You have the right to complain to The Information Commissioner if you believe that our processing of your personal data does not meet our data protection obligations.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted:

By post: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK95AF.

By phone: 0303 123 1113.

By email: contact can be made by accessing www.ico.org.uk