Privacy Policy

Effective date: 22/09/2023

Dover Town Council (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the dovertowncouncil.gov.uk website (the “Service”).

This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data.

We use your data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

Definitions

Personal Data

Personal Data means data about a living individual who can be identified by that data (or in combination with other information either in our possession or likely to come into our possession).

Usage Data

Usage Data is data collected automatically either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of data stored on a User’s device.

Data Controller

Data Controller means a person who (either alone or jointly or in common with other persons) determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal data are, or are to be, processed.

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, we are a Data Controller of your data.

Data Processor (or Service Providers)

Data Processor (or Service Provider) means any person (other than an employee of the Data Controller) who processes the data on behalf of the Data Controller.

We may use the services of various Service Providers in order to process your data more effectively.

Data Subject

Data Subject is any living individual who is the subject of Personal Data.

User

The User is the individual using our Service. The User corresponds to the Data Subject, who is the subject of Personal Data.

Information Collection And Use

We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Email address
  • First name and last name
  • Phone number
  • Mailing address
  • Cookies and Usage Data

If you have given us consent to do so, we may use your Personal Data to contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email we send or by contacting us.

Usage Data

We may also collect information how the Service is accessed and used (“Usage Data”). This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s IP address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Tracking & Cookies Data

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information.

Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyse our Service.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.

Examples of Cookies we use:

  • Session Cookies. We use Session Cookies to operate our Service.
  • Preference Cookies. We use Preference Cookies to remember your preferences and various settings.
  • Security Cookies. We use Security Cookies for security purposes.

Use of Data

Dover Town Council uses the collected data for various purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our Service
  • To notify you about changes to our Service
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
  • To provide customer support
  • To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service
  • To monitor the usage of our Service
  • To detect, prevent and address technical issues
  • To provide you with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless you have opted not to receive such information

How long we keep your personal information

We are required under UK tax law to keep your basic personal data (name, address, contact details) for a minimum of 6 years after which time it will be destroyed. If your information is used for marketing purposes it will be kept until you notify us that you no longer wish to receive this information.

Retention of Data

Dover Town Council will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

Transfer Of Data

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside United Kingdom and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to United Kingdom and process it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Dover Town Council will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

Disclosure Of Data

Disclosure for Law Enforcement

Under certain circumstances, Dover Town Council may be required to disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Dover Town Council may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • To comply with a legal obligation
  • To protect and defend the rights or property of Dover Town Council
  • To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
  • To protect against legal liability

Security Of Data

The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

What are your rights?

We aim to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Data.

If you wish to be informed what Personal Data we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us. You have the right:

  • To access and receive a copy of the Personal Data we hold about you
  • To rectify any Personal Data held about you that is inaccurate
  • To request the deletion of Personal Data held about you
  • You have the right to data portability for the information you provide to Dover Town Council; you can request a copy of your Personal Data in a commonly used electronic format so that you can manage and move it.
  • You have the right, at any time, to object to us using your personal information

Please note that we will ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.

We do not perform any automated decision making or profiling with your personal information.

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK by calling 0303 123 1113.

Service Providers

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.

These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

Mailing Lists

We use the below Service Providers to distibute regular marketing emails, where you have consented to receiving them.

Mailchimp

If you sign up for our newsletter, which is administered through Mailchimp, or if you register for our site, we will store some of your information, including your email address, name and IP address and certain information about the links you click within the emails we send you, on a Mailchimp server. Neither we nor Mailchimp will ever sell your email address or share it with any other party, unless we are legally compelled to do so. If you contact Mailchimp directly regarding your subscription to our newsletter, Mailchimp may contact you directly; otherwise, Mailchimp will never contact you. Only authorized Mailchimp employees have access to our subscriber list. You are always free to unsubscribe from our newsletter, but as long as you are registered with Dover Town Council we may use Mailchimp to send you information about your account.

You can read Mailchimp’s Privacy Policy here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

Analytics

We use the privacy-conscious Matomo Analytics to provide first-party, cookie-free records of user behaviour within our website. No information is shared with third parties and no tracking cookies are created on your device. You can view their Privacy Policy here: https://matomo.org/privacy-policy

Computer Services

We use the below Service Provider to provide IT and email services.

Invicta

We may, from time to time, ask Invicta to process our customer data in pursuit of our IT, email and communication requirements. Invicta are subject to an agreement of confidentiality and are not authorised to share our data under any circumstances. Only authorized Invicta employees have access to our customer data.

You can read Invicta’s Privacy Policy here: https://iisbusiness.co.uk/company-information-policies

We use the below Service Provider to provide IT consultancy services.

Microsoft Office 365

Our email and productivity services are provided by Microsoft Office 365 and as such, we may store your information with them. We retain the rights, title, and interest in the data we store in Office 365. Microsoft will not share your data for advertising purposes or use your data except for purposes consistent with providing our cloud productivity services.

You can read Microsofts’ Privacy Policy here: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacystatement

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13 (“Children”). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us: