Privacy policy

Privacy policy in English

1. The processing of personal data for candidates taking tests

When you register for and/or take the Norwegian language test, the social studies test and/or the Norwegian citizenship test we will process personal data about you. In the following you will find information on the personal data we process, why we process this personal data and your rights in relation to the processing of the personal data.

The data controller is the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills. This means that the Directorate is responsible for the way in which your personal data is processed by the Directorate.

2. Why do we process personal data about you?

We process personal data about you, including sensitive personal data, where this is necessary in order to perform functions that form part of our defined purpose. Our purpose is to provide immigrants to Norway with the knowledge and skills that enable them to take part in day-to-day life in Norway, and to take tests to document their Norwegian language skills and knowledge of Norwegian life and society.

We perform this processing in accordance with Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR and Section 41 (1) b) and/or c) of the Integration Act, and Section 54 of the Integration Regulation. Legal authority for processing sensitive personal data is provided by GDPR Article 9(2) (g) and Section 41 (1) b) and/or c) of the Integration Act. When you take a test, we therefore have a statutory right and duty to process the personal data about you shown in the list below.

We collect and use your personal data to perform the following tasks:

• Arranging the Norwegian language test, the test in social studies and/or the Norwegian citizenship test and assuring the quality of these tests
• Managing the tests at the test centre
• Safeguarding your right to appeal decisions that are subject to a right of appeal
• Statistics
• Research and analysis

As provided for in Section 41 (1) e) of the Integration Act and Section 64 of the Integration Regulation, automated decisions are used in marking the reading and listening test in the Norwegian language test, the test in social studies and the Norwegian citizenship test.

The three tests consist of multiple-choice questions where only one of the possible answers is correct. The threshold for the number of correct answers required to pass the test, as well as which answers are correct, are defined in advance and pre-programmed into the test system. The final assessment received by the candidate will be a score based exclusively on the number of correct answers, where each correct answer qualifies for one point.

Automated decisions are not used in marking written and oral Norwegian language tests, as these tests are assessed by physical examiners and external examiners.

Automated decisions may be monitored manually by the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills. If there is a suspicion/circumstance indicating that a technical fault or a fault of some other nature may have occurred the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills will manually review the testing system and, if applicable, the test result.

3. Where do we obtain the personal data?

We obtain the personal data from you and from other public authorities. These public authorities include:

• The Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi)
• Municipalities/test centres
• The County Governor (final appeal instance in the event of an appeal)
• The Directorate of Immigration (UDI)
• The Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion
• The National Population Register

4. What personal data about you do we process?

We collect and process the following personal data about you:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• E-mail address
• Date of birth
• National Identity Number
• DUF number
• D number
• Passport number
• Candidate number
• Gender
• Test answers
• Test results
• Type of test
• Time at which the test was taken
• The language/preferred form of Norwegian you used in the test
• Test centre
• Appeal
• Discrepancies
• Cheating

We also process the following personal data on candidates about whom the following information was registered before 15 February 2022:

• Country of origin*
• Mother tongue*

*These categories of personal data are classified here as sensitive personal data

5. The release of personal data to third parties

The Directorate for Higher Education and Skills does not release your personal data to third parties unless a legal basis for releasing the data exists. Examples of a legal basis include statutory authority requiring us to release the information.

For candidates with a National Identity Number the test result and associated personal data will be made available via the Diploma Registry (Vitnemålsportalen) website.

Examples of third parties to which the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills has a legal basis for releasing your personal data include

• The Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi)
• Municipality/test centres
• The County Governor (final appeal instance in the event of an appeal)
• Statistics Norway
• The Directorate of Immigration (UDI)
• The Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion
• Higher education institutions
• Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research

The Directorate for Higher Education and Skills uses data processors for collecting, storing or other forms of processing personal data on our behalf. In these cases, we have concluded agreements to safeguard the security of the information at all stages of the processing. At present we use the following data processors:

• Enovate AS

All our processing of personal data takes place within the EU/EEA area.

6. Storage period

We store your personal data with us for as long as is necessary for the purposes provided for in Section 41 first paragraph of the Integration Act. Section 60 fifth paragraph of the Integration Regulation states that personal data about persons taking tests may be stored for up to 20 years from the date on which the test was taken. We can therefore store your personal data for up to 20 years. After this time your personal data will be deleted.

The following information is stored for a shorter period of time:

• Your address is stored for two years
• Audio recordings for tests of reading comprehension and oral communication at level C1 are stored for one year
• Payment status is stored for three years
• Provisional and final decisions on cheating are stored for three years

7. Your rights when we process personal data about you

You have the right to access and/or rectify the personal data about you that we process. In some cases, you also have the right to request restricted processing and to lodge an objection to the processing. You can find out more on the website of the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet).

In order to exercise your rights, you must send us an e-mail at proveadministrasjonen@hkdir.no . We will send you our reply as soon as possible and no later than within 30 days.

We may ask you to confirm your identity or to provide us with additional information before we can answer your inquiry. We do this to make certain that we are not granting access to your personal data to anyone other than you and that we are not releasing your personal data to someone pretending to be you.

8. Data Protection Officer

The Directorate for Higher Education and Skills has a Data Protection Officer at Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research. Contact information:

Marita Ådnanes Helleland

Phone: +47 53 21 15 57

Email: marita.helleland@sikt.no

9. Complaints

If you believe that our processing of personal data has not proceeded as described here or that we are in breach of personal data legislation in other ways, you can file a complaint with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority.

You will find information on how to contact the Norwegian Data Protection Authority on their website.

10. Changes

If changes are made to our services or to the regulations governing the processing of personal data, the information provided here may be changed. This privacy policy will be updated and made available on our website.

11. Contact information

The contact information for the Directorate of Higher Education and Skills is:

Address: Fortunen 1, 5013 Bergen
E-mail: post@hkdir.no
Telephone no.: 55 30 38 00
Organisation number: 974788985

If you have any questions about our processing of your personal data, please send an e-mail to proveadministrasjonen@hkdir.no .

Privacy policy in other languages

A Norwegian version of the Privacy policy can be found by switching to Norwegian language (Bokmål or Nynorsk) in the language selection option in the menu bar at the top of this page.

You can download a PDF version of the Privacy policy in the following languages:

• Albanian (pdf)
• Amharic (pdf)
• Arabic (pdf)
• Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (pdf)
• Chinese (pdf)
• Farsi (pdf)
• French (pdf)
• Portugese (pdf)
• Russian (pdf)
• Somali (pdf)
• Sorani (pdf)
• Spanish (pdf)
• Thai (pdf)
• Tigrinja (pdf)
• Turkish (pdf)
• Urdu (pdf)
• Vietnamese (pdf)