Privacy Policy and information sharing (Updated March 2008)

This page explains how the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) uses any information you give to us in relation to the Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS). It outlines how we protect your privacy.

The Data Protection Act

Under the Data Protection Act, we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. All information will be treated in confidence.  The FCO is processing the personal data on these electronic application forms and related data for the purpose of counter-proliferation. The data may be disclosed to other UK Government Departments, agencies, local authorities, foreign governments and other bodies but only for counter proliferation purposes. The result of your ATAS application will be automatically disclosed to the University/Higher Education Institute that you indicated in the ATAS application form.

What information do we collect?

We collect all the personal information you complete on the electronic form(s). All the information is sent over a 128 bit secure encrypted connection.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback. You can contact us by e-mailing atas@fco.gov.uk.

Comments and questions

If you send an email or letter to atas@fco.gov.uk asking for information,we may need to contact other government departments to find that information. We do not pass on any of your personal information when dealing with your enquiry. Once we have replied to you, we keep are cord of your messages for up to 6 months for reference and audit purposes, after which it is deleted.

What happens when I link to another site?

www.fco.gov.uk/atas contains links to other websites, both those of government departments and of other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our site, so you should always be aware when you are moving to another site and read the privacy statement of any site which collects personal information.

Changes to this privacy policy

If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we will share it with other parties.