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Privacy & data statement
The Buzz Club has a focus on using citizen science methods to undertake our projects, getting as wide a range of people as possible to be able to take part in the scientific process and contribute to our investigations. This does mean that we will need to collect some limited personal data from our members and project participants, as well as the results from the projects themselves.
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We want to be as open and clear as possible about what data we collect, why we want it, and what we will do with it going forward. This page gives our data statement, and more information about what we collect and why. If you have any questions, please do contact us!
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We process your personal information for the management and administration of the Buzz Club projects. We will only keep your personal data for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it is processed. For more general information about how we use personal data at the University of Sussex see our University Privacy Notice.
Membership information
To join the Buzz Club we require a name (by which to address you) and a valid email address, since our primary communication and organisation method is via email.
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We optionally ask for a postcode for the area in which you are planning to undertake our projects, so we can see what sort of coverage our projects have.
If you join as a sponsor of the Buzz Club or provide a one-off donation, your financial and personal information associated with it will be handled by the University of Sussex’ finance department; the Buzz Club itself does not have access to that information.
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In becoming a member of the Buzz Club you consent to us contacting you about our projects and other Buzz Club specific activities (such as our webinar series). You are not required to take part in our projects and may withdraw from membership at any time, either by contacting us directly or via the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of Buzz Club emails.
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Your personal data will be deleted from our records when you unsubscribe.
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You may request to view the data we have associated with you at any time.
Use of your provided email address
An overview of that year’s intended projects will be sent to the Buzz Club members’ mailing list at the start of the year, or following a member joining up.
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A short newsletter of updates about the Buzz Club’s work will be sent to the members’ mailing list quarterly.
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New projects or announcements not initially included in the above will be sent to the members’ mailing list as they are developed.
Project information
Each project has a separate sign-up form; this is so we can be sure that everyone on the list for a specific project has consented to receive information and updates about that project.
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When signing up to a project, members will receive detailed instructions about the project protocol and risk assessments.
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If a project asks for any additional personal information from participants, the reason will be explained and consent requested to collect. Any additional data will also be handled in line with the University of Sussex University Privacy Notice.
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Taking part in a Buzz Club project is completely voluntary and you may withdraw your interest or participation at any time.
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We may ask participants leaving a project to let us know why they have left – this is optional and is intended to help us figure out if a project is suitably engaging, or if there are problems with the design.
Data analysis
We will collect only data that is directly required to answer the research question of each project.
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Unless specifically stated in the project aims (and consented to by participants), datasets will be anonymised before analysis. (E.g. while it statistical analysis often needs a unique identifier for each individual recorder in a data set, we do not need to identify anything about those individuals; just that e.g. ‘recorder 3’ and ‘recorder 12’ were different people.)