This privacy notice explains how St Albans City & District Council (the Data Controller) will use any personal information we collect about you when you use our services.

What information do we collect about you?

The information that the Council will collect varies depending on how you use the Council’s Services. We are using the information provided in this case because we have a legal obligation Art. 6(1)(c), public task Art. 6(1)(e) and consent Art. 6(1)(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR"). This means we collect your personal information from you so that we can carry out a function we are required by law to carry out; provide a service we choose to provide or carry out processing where you have agreed to share the data with us. In each case we are collecting personal information we will tell you the reasons on a privacy notice.

How will we use the information about you?

We use the information to process your application or deal with your complaint or query. We may share the information with other departments at the Council to enable us to deal with your request and we will tell you when we do. We will only share the information to enable us to deal with this matter.

We will not share the personal information we hold with any external organisations except for partner organisations. By partner organisations we mean contractors where sharing your data is necessary to deal with your matter. We may be required to share your personal information with the Police, or similar agency, or another Council for the purposes of preventing and detecting fraud. We will always tell you who we will share the information with in the privacy notice. We will ensure that all personal information is kept securely.

How long will we keep this information?

We will destroy this personal information in accordance with our Disposal Schedules. To determine how long we should keep information, we consider what the legislation states and what is good practice. This means we will securely destroy the information once we no longer need it. If you would like to know the specific period of time that relates to your personal information please contact GDPR@stalbans.gov.uk.

Individuals’ Rights

You have a right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your information, please contact foi@stalbans.gov.uk and ask for a subject access request.

If you consider we hold inaccurate personal information about you, you can contact us to ask for this information to be corrected. We will consider your request and respond within one month. Please contact GDPR@stalbans.gov.uk.

The other rights you have will depend on why we have collected the information -we will tell you in the specific privacy notice relating to that application or process. You can find out more about your individual rights.

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to make your use of the internet better. For further information on how we use these and how you can control it, you can read the Cookies page on our website.

Changes to our Data Protection Policy

We have a Data Protection Policy in place and this can be found here.

We review this policy annually.

Data Protection Officer

Our Data Protection Officer for the purposes of Articles 37 to 39 of the General Data Protection Regulation is Judith Adamson, Solicitor - Regulatory Team Leader. She can be contacted by emailing GDPR@stalbans.gov.uk or calling 01727 866100 for our Complaints Team.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our Data Protection Policy, or concerns about how we handle your information: by emailing foi@stalbans.gov.uk or write to us at: FOI Team, St Albans City & District Council, St Peter’s Street, St Albans, AL1 3JE.

Complaints

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner if you are unhappy with how we process your personal information. You can do so through their website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or by emailing: casework@ico.org.uk or calling their helpline on 0303 123 1113.