Privacy policy for Chinese candidates and residents of China
KAPLAN TEST OF ENGLISH PRIVACY POLICY FOR CANDIDATES
Kaplan Test of English is committed to maintaining the privacy and security of your personal data. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect your personal data. It is important that you read this privacy policy so that you are aware of how and why we are using your personal data.
WHO WE ARE
Kaplan Test of English is an English assessment product of Kaplan International Pathways.
Kaplan International Pathways is the trading name of Kaplan International Colleges UK Ltd. (Company No. 05268303) with its registered address at Palace House, 3 Cathedral Street, London SE1 9DE, United Kingdom so when we mention “Kaplan Test of English”, “Kaplan”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy, we are referring to this company which is responsible for processing your data.
If you are taking a Kaplan Test of English test as a direct candidate where you have booked and paid for the test yourself (i.e. not sponsored by an agent or institution) Kaplan Test of English is the “data controller” or “data processor” of the personal information we hold for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Data Protection Act) or PRC Personal Information Protection Law. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. Where we act as a data controller or data processor, we are required under data protection legislation to notify anyone who provides personal data to us, either directly or through a third party, of the information contained in this Privacy Policy.
If you are taking a Kaplan Test of English test where your test has been booked and paid for on your behalf by your agent, employer or institution they will remain the “data controller” of your personal information and Kaplan Test of English will be a “processor” of that information as we will have a contract in place with them and we act on their behalf and only on their instructions. To understand more about how your agent, employer or institution look after your personal information you should consult their Privacy Policy.
PRINCIPLES FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will comply with laws and regulations related to the protection of personal information. This means that, in relation to your personal information, we shall:
Use your personal information lawfully, reasonably and transparently;
Clearly explain to you in advance the reasonable use of the personal information collected and not to use the personal information collected for any other purpose;
The use of personal information is necessary and limited to the purposes for which we have informed you;
Ensure the accuracy of personal information and keep it up to date;
We will only keep your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we have notified you in advance;
Keep your personal information secure.
DATA PROTECTION OFFICER
We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy.
Contact details
Email address: [email protected]
Postal address: Palace House, 3 Cathedral Street, London SE1 9DE, United Kingdom.
If you are an EU national or resident in an EU country, and wish to contact our EU Representative:-
Kaplan Ireland Education Limited, 13/14 Aungier Street, Dublin 2, D02 WC04 Ireland
If you are a citizen or resident in China, and wish to contact our China Representative:
Aspect (Beijing) Education Information Consulting Co., Ltd, C312-C313, 50 Liangmaqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
GROUNDS FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to fulfil a contract that we have entered into with you.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
We may also use your personal data in the following situations, which are likely to be less common:
- Where we need to protect your vital interests (or someone else’s interests).
- Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.
Examples of how we may use your personal data:
- for the purpose you provided personal data, for example to enrol you in an assessment
- to reset your account password
- to administer, support, improve and develop our business
The reading and listening test components of the Kaplan Test of English test are based on automated scoring. Reading, listening and grammar scores are determined by the platform and stored. These may be recorded on a Kaplan Test of English Results Report and/or certificate.
Candidates can make an appeal for the reading and listening components to be manually reviewed by contacting [email protected]
INFORMATION ABOUT YOU THAT WE COLLECT
We collect and process your personal data so that we can process your application, payment and provide services to you.
Enquiries
When you request information or make enquiries about our services, we will use the personal data you provide in order to fulfil your request or respond to your enquiry.
Registration, booking and sitting an assessment
When you register with us in order to take an English test, taster test, submit a booking request or make payment for, or attend, an assessment, Kaplan Test of English will collect the following categories of personal data about you:
- Personal contact details such as name, date of birth, personal email addresses, IP address and institution ID number. Kaplan Test of English also allocates all test takers an ID number.
- Country in which the test is taken
- Nationality of the test taker
- Country of residence
Bank account details
We use a third party payment provider called Flywire (https://www.flywire.com/legal/privacy-policy) to take your payment. All the transaction details are encrypted and secured. We will provide you a link to their secure payment portal where you will be required to share payment information such as your credit card details in order to pay a deposit.
We do not collect your bank account details or payment information directly, although we may do so in the event that we need to issue you with a refund. We can see from the payment portal that you have paid, your country of origin and what type of bank card you used.
Before collecting your sensitive personal information or sharing it with the third party, we will get your separate consent.
If you are under 18 we will also collect the following personal details of your parents or legal guardian:-
- Name
- Their signature
- Their email
- Relationship with candidate
**Special Instructions for Minors:**
If you are a minor under the age of 18, please make sure to read this privacy policy under the accompaniment and guidance of a guardian and use our products/services or provide us with information after obtaining the guardian’s consent.
**Guardians note:**
If you are the legal guardian of a minor, please read this privacy policy carefully and confirm whether you agree with the relevant rules for the processing of minors’ personal information and whether you agree with the minor’s use of our products/services by signing minor’s consent letter. You should ensure that minors use our products/services under your consent and guidance, and submit your personal information (including without limitation to, your name, email address and your relationship with the candidate) to us. If you do not agree with the content of this privacy policy, please ask the minor to immediately stop using our products and services.
Reasonable adjustments
If you require any reasonable adjustments, then we will also collect data related any disability or condition that may affect your ability to successfully take the test or requirements for reasonable adjustments.
Proctoring and Plagiarism
To ensure the integrity of our testing we use proctoring and plagiarism checking software for all our tests (“Proctoring Service“). If you sit a Kaplan Test of English test in person, the proctoring is done by persons sat in the room at the time of the test. If you are under 18 then parental or legal guardian’s consent is required for the use of the Proctoring Service. If you take the Kaplan Test of English test online, then this proctoring is conducted remotely using (i) the Proctortrack Testing Platform, or (ii) Talview.
(i) Proctortrack
Where Proctortrack is used your data will be processed by Verificient Technologies Inc as either a Processor or Sub Processor of Kaplan Test of English (https://www.proctortrack.com/privacy-policy/). Personal Information collected through proctoring services may include the following:
- Name
- Photograph of identity document, such as a driver’s license
- Photograph of you
- Telephone number (used for tech support only)
- Name of the Test Sponsor(s) (i.e., the educational institution(s)) at which you are enrolled and course test information
- Email address
- Test submissions
- Screen-captures
- Audio and video recordings of you taking tests
- Hardware and software details (background process list, system configuration information, etc)
Candidate proctoring data is held in Verificient Technologies Inc’s secured servers until 120 days after the completion of a proctored exam attempt. If a data purge is required outside the normal guidelines, the request can be implemented within 15 business days of a purge request.
(ii) Talview
Talview, as a Data Importer, processes the following types of personal data on behalf of its customers Privacy – Talview.
The list includes, but is not limited to, the following items:
- Identification information of the candidate, such as a student card or ID;
- Video footage of the candidate;
- Screenshots of the PC or other device used by the candidate;
- Name and email of the candidate;
- Associated details regarding tests (including but not limited to education provider);
- IP address of the candidate; vii. Any other data relating to individuals provided to the Data Importer via the services at the discretion of the customer, or customers’ customer or end users.
Candidate data will be held in secure servers. Talview has a Primary Data Centre in the Netherlands (MS Azure) and a Secondary Data Centre – Ireland (MS Azure). Candidate data will be stored in active directory (front end) for 90 days. After which the candidate data will be transferred to cold storage and stored for the contract duration. The data can be retrieved upon request.
All writing tests are reviewed through plagiarism checking software “Copyleaks” (Privacy Policy – Copyleaks)
SHARING INFORMATION
We do not share personal data with third parties for marketing purposes. We may hire other companies to perform services on our behalf including, without limitation, facilitating some aspects of our website and services, managing our database, sending e-mail and other mail to you, processing and collecting payments, providing us with legal, financial and accounting advice and conducting required audits. These other companies may be supplied with or have access to your information solely for the purpose of providing these services to us or on our behalf.
We also may disclose personal data in special circumstances where it is necessary under the law (for example, when necessary to protect our or a third party’s intellectual property or proprietary rights) or when we, at our sole discretion, believe it is appropriate, in connection with a sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, or when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires us to do so.
If you have enrolled with Kaplan Test of English through your employer, sponsor, agent or educational institution, we will share your personal data, test results, any reasonable adjustments made for your test, proctoring recordings including flags for suspected misconduct.
If you have purchased the Kaplan Test of English test directly from us, we may share your test results with third parties such as educational institutions or organisations that recognise the Kaplan Test of English test for the purposes of verification.
We may share your personal data with our affiliates, subsidiaries and other members of the Kaplan group of companies, including companies located outside of the EU. In many cases, Kaplan may disclose aggregated and anonymous data, which may include information about or derived from you, with third parties.
If you are under 18, we may share your personal data with your parents or guardians in order to perform our contract, comply with our legal obligations and if it is in your vital interests.
Kaplan Test of English has entered into contracts with third party suppliers whose services are required to support the provision of the assessments. Kaplan Test of English will share your personal data with such suppliers as is required under those contracts in order for the services to be performed.
These services may include processing booking requests and payments, verifying your identity, providing systems enabling you to schedule and manage assessment appointments and engaging in associated correspondence, providing customer service, performing business and sales analysis and supporting our website and IT functionality. These service providers may be supplied with or have access to your personal data solely for the purpose of providing these services to us or on our behalf.
If you choose to take a Kaplan Test of English test through online proctoring, then your data may be shared with Verificient Technologies Inc or Talview Inc.
| Third party (or category of vendor) | Sharing information types | Sharing Purpose | Sharing Methods | Storage Time | Privacy policy of third parties |
| FormAssembly | – Name – Date of birth – Personal email – Telephone number – Nationality – Country of residence – Country in which the test is to be taken – Additional needs information (if relevant) | Test booking | Booking form | 2 years after candidate’s completion of KTE test | Privacy Policy – FormAssembly |
| Salesforce | – Name – Date of birth – Personal email – Telephone number – Nationality – Country of residence – Country in which the test is to be taken – Additional needs information (if relevant) | Test booking information storage and processing | Booking form (FormAssembly) | 2 years after candidate’s completion of KTE test | Privacy Policy – Salesforce |
| Copyleaks | Writing performance | Plagiarism checking | Manual transfer (copy and paste) | Indefinite | Privacy Policy – Copyleaks |
| Verificient Technologies | – Name of the candidate – Email address of the candidate – Identification information of the candidate, such as ID or passport – Video footage of the candidate (audio and visual) – Video footage of the screen of the device used by the candidate | Test proctoring | Personal data entered by test administration team | 180 days | Privacy Policy – Verificient Technologies |
| Talview Inc | – Name of the candidate – Email address of the candidate – Identification information of the candidate, such as ID or passport – Video footage of the candidate (audio and visual) – Video footage of the screen of the device used by the candidate – Video footage of the screen of the candidate’s testing environment | Test proctoring | Personal data entered by test administration team | 2 years | Privacy Policy – Talview |
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER
Your personal information may be stored and processed outside of the country where it is collected, including outside of the European Economic Area or China. For example, data collected through proctoring is stored on Verificient Technologies Inc’s server in the U.S.A.
All writing tests are reviewed through Copyleaks software whose Headquarters are in the U.S.A.
Tests will be graded by a team of staff in China or transferred anonymously to grading staff outside China for grading purpose for all test takers based in China.
Tests will be graded by a team of staff globally who are based largely but not exclusively in the USA and UK.
Transferring your personal information outside the PRC
Before transferring your personal information across borders, we will get your separate consent, and under your separate consent, we may share, transfer or store your personal information outside the People’s Republic of China, and we are confident that appropriate safeguards have been put in place to protect the integrity and security of your personal information, or appropriate security measures are taken in accordance with applicable laws.
HOW LONG YOUR INFORMATION IS KEPT
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. Our storage time for personal information of all China-based test takers will not exceed 2 years after test takers complete KTE test. After the retention period, we will delete or anonymize your information. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. Please contact us if you would like more information.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your working relationship with us.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further policy to you.
HOW WE KEEP INFORMATION SECURE
We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure and protected by design and default.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, service providers, business partners, agents and other third parties who have a legitimate need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions or as otherwise agreed and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION LEGISLATION (data subject rights)
Depending on the information we hold about you, and the reason it is being held, you have certain rights which are set out below. In some cases, exemptions disapply your rights and the obligations the data controller/data processor have towards you.
- Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- Request correction of the personal that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
- Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
- Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
- Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
- Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.
If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal data, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact us using the contact details in this Privacy Policy.
REPORTING CONCERNS ABOUT HOW WE PROCESS YOUR DATA
If you have any concerns about the matters in this statement or the way we process your data, then you can email us at: [email protected] or if you are Chinese resident, you can send your request to the following address: Aspect (Beijing) Education Information Consulting Co., Ltd., C313 Beijing Lufthansa Center, No. 50 Liangmaqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. We will respond to your requests within 30 days.
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
Please contact us using the details in this Privacy Policy if you would like further information.