Participate panel privacy notice

This privacy notice is designed to help you understand how we use personal information when delivering our participate panel and citizen’s panel, we have set out below the services types, the information we may use to deliver the services, who we may share it with, and how long we will keep it.

Information we hold about you

We only collect and use the minimum amount of personal information required when delivering a service to you. Wherever possible we use non-identifiable personal information.

The service may use some or all of the personal information provided:

• your name, address, telephone number, postcode, date of birth, gender, screen name and email address
• racial or ethnic origin
• disability and health conditions
• employment details
• if you are a carer
• the IP address that you accessed any of our online services from
• details about your lifestyle and social circumstances
• how many people live in your household and their age groups
• home ownership and rent status
• the IP address that you accessed any of our online services from

When respondents complete online panel activities, we collect the IP address that you accessed any of our online services from, but we do not use this to identify individuals. This data is used to measure and monitor the number of unique visits to panel webpages and the number of unique engagements in panel activities.

We use cookies on the Participate Now website to help us provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allow us to improve our site. This cookie policy specifically explains how we deploy cookies and the options you have to control them.

We have access to a customer insight dataset called Acorn. Acorn is a socio-demographic dataset which segments households, postcodes and neighbourhoods into six categories, 18 groups and 62 types. We sometimes use the data you have supplied to us to review the way we are delivering services. When we do this we remove all the personal data that could be used to identify you, group it against postcode area and then match it against the Acorn dataset, this allows us to check for differing views between groups of people from different categories, groups or types of household. Further information can be found on the Acorn website.

Why we need your information and how we use it

We use your information to:

• deliver the service, or handle your query
• plan and improve the services we offer
• research, however this would be in anonymised form unless we ask for your consent to use your personal information for this purpose
• evidence positive outcomes to central government funding agencies
• upload your information to our engagement platform Participate Now which we use to carry out online panel engagement activities
• keep you updated with relevant information about panel research, consultation and engagement exercises
• monitor the representativeness of the panel compared to the local population
• inform policy and decision-making processes related to local issues and public services

Who your information may be shared with

We do not share your information.

The Data Controller

We are the Data Controller for this processing.

The lawful basis for the processing

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, under the Data Protection Act 2018, the lawful bases we rely on for using your personal information are:

• you gave us your consent (UK GDPR Article 6 (a) - you are able to remove your consent at any time by contacting research@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

When we collect data about your race, health (including biometric or genetic data), sex life, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, politics or trade union membership, we also rely on the following lawful basis:

• you gave us your explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 9 (2) (a))

Protecting your information

Your information will be securely stored on our network and in offices in The Portal, Ellesmere Port.

How long will we keep your personal information?

We will only use your personal information whilst delivering the service to you and to deal with any questions or complaints that we may receive about this, unless the law requires us to keep it for a longer period. In practice, this means that your information will be kept as long as you remain a member of the Participate Panel then destroyed.

If we need to use your information for research or reports, your information will be anonymised and any information taken from notes (hand written or typed) during any consultation sessions will be securely destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely

Your rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• your right of access - you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information
• your right to rectification - you have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete
• your right to erasure - you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances
• your right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances
• your right to data portability - you have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

To make a request follow the instructions on our Data protection for you page.

How to complain if you are unhappy about how your data is used

You can complain directly to our Data Protection team online or by post.

• Online: Contact the DPO
• By post: Data Protection Officer, The Portal, Wellington Road, Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BA

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using the following details:

• Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website
• By post: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
• Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Will my personal information be accessible outside the UK?

Your information is stored within the UK.