Privacy Policy
How we use your information
This notice explains how we use and share personal information which may be collected online, on paper or by email, telephone, CCTV or in person by different departments across the Council.
We collect, use, hold and share where necessary, information for the following purposes:
- to deal with the service that you requested and to allow us to be able to communicate, and provide services appropriate to your needs and to monitor our performance in responding to your request;
- to ensure we meet our legal obligations;
- to prevent and detect fraud or crime;
- for our law enforcement functions, i.e. trading standards, planning enforcement, licensing and other regulatory enforcement;
- to process financial transactions including grants, payments, benefits and invoices involving us or when we are acting on behalf of other government bodies;
- to conduct research and surveys and to allow for the statistical analysis of data so we can plan the provision of services;
- where necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury;
- to fulfil our duty to improve the health of the population of Cornwall. To help with this, we use data and information from a range of source data, including data collected at the registration of a birth or death to understand more about the health and care needs in Cornwall;
- where you have consented to the processing;
- where otherwise permitted under Data Protection legislation.
It applies to information we collect about:
- Service provision;
- Visitors to our websites;
- Providing information to individual services online;
- Use of cookies;
- Use of the council website’s search engine;
- Security of information;
- People who contact us via social media;
- People who call our helpline;
- People who email us;
- People who use our LiveChat service;
- People who make a complaint to us;
- Your rights;
- Complaints and queries;
- Access to personal information;
- Disclosure of personal information
Please see the respective service’s websites for any additional specific privacy policies which may apply to discrete business areas.
Visitors to our websites
When someone visits www.cornwall.gov.uk we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.
Providing information to individual services online
You will always be provided with a detailed privacy notice when you provide information in order to request a service. Please make sure that you read the information so you are aware of how your information will be processed.
Use of cookies
You can read more about how we use cookies on our Cookies page.
Search engine
Our website search is powered by SolrSearch. Queries and results are logged anonymously to help us improve our website and search functionality. No user-specific data is collected by either Cornwall Council or any third party.
People who contact us via social media
We use a third party provider, Hootsuite to manage our social media interactions.
If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored by Hootsuite for three months. It will not be shared with any other organisations.
People who contact us via Textphone/minicom
If you are a textphone (minicom) user, please contact us using Text Relay by dialling 18001 before the number you require.
Text Relay assisted calls are charged at your telecommunication provider’s normal rates
If you have any problems connecting to the Council or it is your first time using Text Relay, dial 0800 500 888 from a textphone for help or visit http://www.textrelay.org/
Call and screen recording policy
The Council’s telephony system logs the telephone number of incoming calls (except where the number is withheld by the caller) and all outgoing calls. This information is processed in collective form as performance data in order that the council can shape and improve its service to the public. The information is also retained for a no longer than two years to protect both the council and members of the public in the event of complaint, criminal or fraudulent activity.
Our call and screen recording policy gives information on who can access call recordings, what will be recorded, and what recordings can be used for.
Webchat Privacy notice
Web Chat is available for a number of services on the Cornwall Council website. It allows you to speak to council officers using ‘live instant messaging’ technology. Information from each ‘chat’ will be held for 2 years and may be used when looking into your enquiry and for quality and statistical purposes.
You may be asked to complete a short survey on completion of your web chat. All answers for the survey will only be used for service improvement and statistical analysis.
Your rights
Under Data Protection legislation, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you.
You can read more about these rights on our Cornwall Council Data Protection pages.
Giving your consent
Before you start a webchat with us we will ask for your name and an email contact. We must ask for your consent to record these.
What information will you collect?
To initiate a chat session we will always collect
- Name
- Email address
To help you with your enquiry during a chat session we may sometimes ask you to confirm
- Your address
- Telephone number
- other information we already hold in our records e.g. to help with Council Tax enquiries
Depending on your enquiry we may also collect the following sensitive personal date
- physical or medical information e.g. To help with Blue Badge enquiries
We may also capture and store some information about your computer, such as your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration. This information is purely statistical and does not identify you as an individual. We use this data to help us understand our users’ browsing patterns.
How will you use the information?
- We will use the data you provide us with to send you information about the services you have requested, such as sending you links to our web forms.
- Where you voluntarily choose to give us your personal details the data you give us will be used to verify your identity and for providing you with the information or service you have requested.
- The only people using your personal details will be those initially providing the advice and information to you and those involved in providing, evaluating or managing the webchat service
Who will you share my information with?
If you use the Live Chat service we will not share your personally identifiable information with anyone.
We will only send personally identifiable information about you to other organisations when we have your consent. This is only necessary when we need to share your information in order to provide the service requested, such as a missed bin collection.
We may also use the information in response to subpoenas, court orders or other legal process if required under law.
Security
We make every effort through appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information is held securely and to safeguard against unauthorised access by.
- Having Information Governance policies and procedures for our staff to follow in place
- Ensuring our staff are trained and competent.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We strive to protect your personal information after we have received it; however you acknowledge that the privacy of your communications and personal information can never be completely guaranteed when it is being transmitted.
Who will control my data?
The Data Controller for all the information you provide is
Cornwall Council
New County Hall
Treyew Road,
Truro, TR1 3AY
Data Protection Registration Number: Z1745294
People who call our helpline
When you call Cornwall Council’s helpline we currently collect Calling Line Identification (CLI) information. We use this information to help improve its efficiency and effectiveness.
Calls are recorded for training and improvement purposes, call recordings are kept for no longer than two years.
Our helpline also offers a translation service for customers when English is not their first language, this is provided by Language Line. The company that provides this service does not record the calls or retain any information from them.
People who email us
We use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt and protect email traffic in line with government. If your email service does not support TLS, you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit.
We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.
People who make a complaint to us
We will store your information in secure records keeping systems and only use your information in relation to processing and consideration of your feedback. Details of the subject matter raised may be shared with management teams and provided in reports to help with improvements and to monitor our level of service, but this is anonymised and does not include personal details of the person submitting the feedback.
The information you provide will be shared with the service area which relates to your complaint; if further processing is needed you will be advised of this by the relevant service. Where we need to liaise with a third party who provides services on the Council’s behalf, we will only share details of the issue and not your personal information. We will contact you to obtain your permission if it becomes necessary to pass on any personal information.
We will keep your personal information contained in complaint files for up to 6 years from the date your enquiry was closed. This information is retained in a secure environment with restricted authorised access.
Your rights
Under the Data Protection legislation, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you.
You can read more about these rights on our Data Protection pages.
Complaints or queries
Cornwall Council tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.
If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, you can contact us at dataprotection@cornwall.gov.uk
We would prefer any complaints to be made to us initially so that we
have the opportunity to see if we can put things right. However, if you are
unhappy with the way we have processed your information or how we
have responded to your request to exercise any of your rights in relation
to your data, you can raise your concerns direct with the Information
Commissioner’s Office.
Tel: 0303 123 1113 or online: https://ico.org.uk/concerns
Access to personal information
Cornwall Council tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the Data Protection legislation. If we do hold information about you we will:
- give you a description of it;
- tell you why we are holding it;
- tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
- let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.
To make a request to Cornwall Council for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing addressing it to our Corporate Governance and Information Team, or writing to the address provided below.
If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again, contacting the Information Governance department.
Further details are available on our Data Protection pages.
Disclosure of personal information
We may be required by law to share information about you with other organisations, you will always be informed of this sharing when you provide us with your information. If we don’t have a statutory duty to share information we will not disclose personal data without your consent.
You can also get further information on:
- agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information;
- circumstances where we can pass on personal data without consent for example, to prevent and detect crime and to produce anonymised statistics;
- our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete personal data; and
- how we check that the information we hold is accurate and up to date.
Links to other websites
This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.
Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 23 May 2018.
How to contact us
If you want to request information about our privacy policy you can email us or write to the Council’s Data Protection Officer at:
Corporate Governance and Information team,
4N,
New County Hall,
Treyew Road,
Truro,
TR1 3AY
The Data Controller for all the information you provide to the Council including via this website is Cornwall Council, New County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro
TR1 3AY. Data Protection Registration Number: Z1745294
If you would like to delete your website account please email webmanager@cornwall.gov.uk