Privacy Notice

The Creative and Advanced Technologies Lab (CAT LAB) is a research and teaching facility of the University of Westminster. This notice explains what we do with your personal information, your rights, and how we protect it, both when you use this website (catlab.london) and when you register to use the Lab.

The University of Westminster is the data controller for the personal data described here. The University takes its data protection obligations seriously. Access to any personal information you give us, whether registering as a user of CAT LAB, or captured on our CCTV or similar surveillance systems, is subject to a staff confidentiality agreement, and is limited by permissions to only those staff who need it to manage your use of our facilities. We process personal data in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

This website

The public CAT LAB website (catlab.london) is built to be privacy-first.

We use cookieless analytics to understand, in aggregate, how the site is used, for example, which pages are viewed and which content performs. This measurement does not use tracking cookies, does not build a profile of you, and does not collect personally identifying information.

The site sets cookies only in two limited cases:

• A strictly necessary session cookie, set only if you log in as a member, so the platform can keep you signed in. It is not used for tracking or advertising.
• A returning-visitor recognition cookie, set with your consent at login, so the site can recognise a returning member and tailor the entry experience (for example, a greeting and a prompt to log in).

Full detail of the cookies we use, and how to control them, is in our Cookie Policy.

Using the Lab: the personal data we collect

All University colleagues and students can register to use CAT LAB. When you register, we usually collect only:

• Your name and your student or staff identification number
• Your School or staff department
• Your contact information, including email and phone number
• Your course of study and year of study, if applicable
• Whether you have a health issue that should be considered in relation to your use of the Lab

In the course of your use of CAT LAB, we may additionally collect your:

• CAT LAB safety training records
• Equipment loans
• Payment information
• Visit records
• CCTV and other surveillance data
• Personal health information, where relevant

How we use your personal data

If you have registered to use CAT LAB, we hold this information to process your registration and to give you safe access to our facilities. We use your personal data to:

• Contact you
• Manage and deliver required safety training
• Give you access to CAT LAB and authorised use of our equipment
• Manage the hiring and loaning of equipment and any related payment processes
• Compile statistics and reports to help us manage and improve our operations

Legal basis for processing and retention

If you pass our required training and agree to our relevant terms of use, that agreement forms the basis of our processing of your data.

Additionally, in the public interest of health and safety and to prevent and detect crime, we may capture your agreed use of CAT LAB on our CCTV and similar surveillance systems. See our CCTV and Surveillance Camera Policy for how this data is managed.

We also compile aggregate statistics on the use of CAT LAB from time to time in order to review and improve our operations. If we share these with colleagues, no individuals will be identifiable.

CCTV and similar surveillance data is retained for no longer than 28 days. Other personal data is kept for as long as required for business use, or no longer than six years after your last use of CAT LAB.

Special category personal data

In most circumstances CAT LAB will not gather, or require you to give us, any sensitive personal data to register or use the Lab, unless you have a health issue that should be considered in relation to your use of the Lab and its facilities and equipment. In such a case, your personal health information is processed in strict confidentiality and with your explicit consent.

Staying in touch

We will use your contact details to arrange required training and any loan of equipment. We will not use your personal information to send you marketing communications by email or text unless you have agreed to receive them, and you can opt out of such communications at any time.

Profiling and automated decision-making

CAT LAB does not use any automated decision-making, decisions made by a computer without human intervention, in the registration and use of the Lab.

Data transfers and sharing

The University does not share your personal information with any other third-party organisation, other than where this is necessary to provide a service you have agreed to, or where otherwise allowed by UK law.

Where a service involves a third party processing your information, that service is covered by a contract. Details of the services, and the legal mechanism for any data transfers outside the UK, can be requested in the first instance from the CAT LAB Director: d.scott@westminster.ac.uk.

Your rights

If you have any questions about your personal information and your information rights, including your right of access, rectification and erasure, please see the University's data protection web pages, or contact the University Information Compliance Team at dpa@westminster.ac.uk.

You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) about any concern you may have with how your personal information is processed.

Contact

CAT LAB Director Dr David Scott, CAT LAB, University of Westminster 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS d.scott@westminster.ac.uk

Last reviewed: July 2026.