Falmouth University Privacy Notice for the Cornwall Angel Network
This notice outlines how Falmouth University (referred to as “University”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and protects your personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”) as part of the Cornwall Angel Network (“CAN“) business investment scheme.
Falmouth University is committed to protecting the personal data of individuals that utilise the CAN platform https://cornwallangels.co.uk/ (the “Platform“), These users include individuals acting as or on behalf of investors such as angel investors, venture capitalists, sole traders or businesses who are seeking information and contacts for investment opportunities (“Investors“), as well as individuals acting as or on behalf of businesses seeking connections with those Investors (“Companies“).
1. How does this privacy notice relate to other privacy notices?
If you engage with Falmouth University as part of CAN this privacy notice will apply. This notice will still apply to your data which we process as part of your engagement with the Platform and will apply to all activities relating to CAN after you have engaged with us.
2. What personal data will be processed?
The personal data we process will be:
The information you provide to register your interest in collaborating with the University, event attendance, or by other means such as in an email or over the telephone may include:
(a) Contact details: Name, email address, phone number, postal address.
(b) Professional information: Job title, company name, annual income, net assets, business address, Company pitch decks, Company financial performance.
(c) Marketing information: Preferences for receiving updates and news about the University, CAN, and possible knowledge transfer or collaboration opportunities (with your consent).
(d) Records of communications sent to you by CAN or that we receive from you.
(e) Any other information you provide to CAN either in person or other means.
The University may also collect appropriate biographical information about you from publicly available sources and this may include photographs, or publications you have made in both online and offline media. This is known as data enrichment and includes sources such as LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook / Instagram), X formerly known as Twitter and other publicly available sources.
3. Why are we processing this personal data?
The University will process your personal data for the following purposes:
(a) To provide the following services to investors:
(i) To assess an investor’s eligibility to join CAN and eligibility to receive non-approved financial communications
(ii) To use email addresses provided for the creation of individual CAN member accounts on the CAN website and for sharing news and information about upcoming events, network development and support available, in line with your consent.
(iii) To use home addresses to send Christmas cards and gifts where explicit consent has been granted by you via email.
(b) To provide the following services to companies:
(i) To assess a company’s eligibility and performance to pitch at private investor showcase meetings.
(ii) To use email addresses to share news and information about upcoming events, network development and support available, in line with your consent.
(iii) To share pitch decks with angel investors as potential investment opportunities.
(c) To fulfil and monitor our legal responsibilities, for example, under public safety legislation.
(d) To fulfil and monitor our legal responsibilities, for example, under equalities, immigration and public safety legislation.
4. What is our legal basis for this processing?
We rely on the following legal bases to process your personal data:
(a) Legal obligation: We have a legal obligation to request self-declaration forms from high-net-worth individuals and sophisticated investors in order to freely circulate unapproved financial communications (pitch decks).
(b) Legitimate interests: When processing your data is in the legitimate interests of the University and your organisation, such as promoting research collaboration and innovation.
(c) Consent: For specific purposes like sending you marketing materials, submitting data or filling in forms, we will only process your data with your explicit consent.
You can withdraw your consent for processing personal data at any time.
5. Will any data be shared with a third party?
Your information will be used throughout the University with only those who need to process your personal data for the purposes set out above.
It is also sometimes necessary for us to share personal data with third parties as follows:
(a) Data about Companies interested in raising finance will be shared with the angel investor members via the members only area of the website.
(b) Data about Companies interested in raising finance will be shared with network collaborators such as the British Business Bank and Cornwall Chamber of Commerce for the purpose of pitch deck selection and deal flow filtering.
(c) Data about Investors may be shared in the form of email introductions with relevant Companies with explicit consent from Investors at an investor showcase meeting.
(d) If two or more Investors are interested in Investing in the same company, personal data may be shared in the form of an email introduction between the two Investors with their explicit consent.
(e) Pitch decks may also be shared with fellow angel investor networks, VC funds and business support programmes which are external to the network.
We will never share your personal data with external organisations for marketing their products or services. We do not sell your personal data and never will, to anyone, under any circumstances.
Where pitch decks are submitted via the website, founders are informed about who will get access to this data and when.
Investor data will only be shared with relevant companies at an investor showcase meeting with your explicit consent of the investor.
6. How long is my personal data kept by the University?
Individual Investor data: any data provided in self-declaration forms will be deleted 6 months after the 1-year anniversary of their signing.
If an investor no longer wises to be a part of CAN, their data will be deleted after 6 months due to the legal protections for the network for past communications gained via the self-declaration forms.
Individual Company data: Any pitch desks and financial information will be deleted 6 months after the first upload on the website or until your request for the data to be deleted.
All accounts which have access to the members area of the website will automatically delete after one year of inactivity.
Data provided to government departments under the University’s legal obligations may be kept for longer periods of time for statistical analysis. We will securely delete or anonymise your personal data once complete.
7. Your rights under the UK GDPR
To check your rights under the UK GDPR, please visit the ICO’s Guide to Individual Rights.
8. How to exercise your rights
To exercise any of your rights under the UK GDPR, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at:
Falmouth University Data Protection Officer
DPO@falmouth.ac.uk
01326 211077
Complaints:
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”).
9. Changes to this notice
We may update this privacy notice from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new notice on our website.
10. Contact us
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer at the email address or phone number provided above.
Effective Date: 1st October 2025