North Somerset Council is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for the purposes of processing personal data. Find out more about how we use personal data.
The SMS service
The service is a text service that we are providing for the deaf and hard of hearing community. It allows customers to proactively contact us by text to help them to access council services.
When we process your personal data
We process your personal information when you contact us by text message.
Why we process your personal data
We process your personal information so that we can respond to your query, deliver the services that you need or answer the question that you ask us.
Within the UK General Data Protection Regulation, we are permitted to process the personal information we gather because we feel that the processing is necessary for the performance of a task that we carry out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us as a local council.
Local authorities deliver many services, many of which are statutory. We consider it to be in the public interest for us to ensure that those who experience difficulties in hearing are not excluded from accessing these services. We have therefore made available the SMS service to make it as easy as possible for you to engage with us visually rather than verbally.
What personal information we process
We will capture the information that you provide to us when making your request and in subsequent exchanges of messages. This includes:
- your name
- mobile telephone number
- any personal details you provide us that are essential for us to know to fulfil your request
Sharing your personal information with other organisations
With your consent, we will share the information you provide us with our partners if the services that you are asking us about are delivered by another agency, such as the NHS, or if we feel that it would be in your best interests to speak to another organisation such as Citizens Advice.
Because we store the information you provide electronically, our technical services provider, Agilisys, will have access to your information as they manage and maintain our IT systems.
We will otherwise only share your personal information with other agencies if we are required to do so by law for example where we are obliged to share information for the purposes of preventing and detecting fraud.
Processing data outside of the UK or EU
None of the information covered by this privacy notice will be processed outside of the UK or EU.
How long we keep your personal data
Your personal details will be retained for a period of 90 days following the date of your text. At this point your information will be irrevocably deleted from our systems.
Automated decision-making
We do not make any automated decisions using the personal information covered in this privacy notice. All decisions arising from the information you provide will be subject to human involvement.
Your rights over your personal information
The UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act give you rights over your personal information that we process. The extent of the rights granted to you is determined by the reasons that the processing is deemed to be allowed. We have explained these reasons in the section 'why we process your personal data'. The rights that are granted to you relating to the information covered by this privacy notice are:
Right to receive concise and transparent information
You have the right to receive ‘concise and transparent information’ about how we handle your personal data. We achieve this through the use of this privacy notice as well as other privacy information published on our website.
Right of access to the personal information we hold about you
You have the right of access to:
- the personal information we hold about you
- the reasons it is being processed
- whether it is shared with other organisations
- how long we hold it for
- whether there has been a security breach involving your personal data
To exercise this right you can make a subject access request. You can make a subject access request through our website, in writing, over email or verbally.
Right to request that we correct any data we hold about you
You have the right to request that we correct any data we hold about you that is inaccurate.
Right to request us to restrict the extent of our data processing
You have the right to request us to restrict the extent of our data processing, for example if you believe that the information we hold about you is incorrect. You might also not want us to delete information as it approaches the end of its retention period. In these circumstances we are obliged to continue to store the information, but not use it for any other purpose unless required to do so by law.
Right to object to us processing your personal information
You have the right to object to us processing your personal information in the manner described within this privacy notice. You can do this in writing or by speaking to us. You can phone us on 01934 888 888 or use our online contact form.
Right to make a complaint
You have a right to make a complaint if you are unhappy about the way we process your personal information.
How you can make a complaint about how we have processed your personal information
If you want to make a complaint about how we handle your personal data, we ask that you give our data protection officer the opportunity to respond in the first instance, but you are not obliged to do this. You can make your complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
You can email our data protection officer at dpo@n-somerset.gov.uk.
The Information Commissioner is the designated regulator in the UK for all complaints relating the processing of personal information. If you are unhappy with the way we have managed your information you can seek more advice and raise a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).