Did you know that some of your personal information might be ‘special’?
Some information is ‘special’ and needs more protection due to its sensitivity. It’s often information you would not want widely known and is very personal to you. This is likely to include anything that can reveal your:
- Sexuality and sexual health
- Religious or philosophical beliefs
- Ethnicity
- Physical or mental health
- Trade union membership
- Political opinion
- Genetic/biometric data
- Criminal history
Why do we need your personal information?
We may need to use some information about you to:
- deliver services and support to you
- manage the services we provide to you
- train and manage the employment of the people who deliver those services
- help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your services
- keep track of spending on services
- check the quality of services
- help with research and planning of new services
When you provide data to us it is often on a voluntary basis but there are occasions where you have a statutory duty or contractual obligation to provide us with your data, examples might include:
- if you enter into an agreement with us, i.e. to rent a property, or borrow a book from the library
- If you request a service from us, i.e. applying for a taxi or event licence
There is also an obligation for you to provide us with your personal details in relation to statutory services such as council tax.
How the law allows us to use your personal information
There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. However by its nature the work of the council is varied, and single activities can be required to comply with various statutory requirements such as the Planning Acts, Environmental Acts etc. The main ones for the council are the Local Government Acts and the Localism Act 2011, but there are hundreds more. The Government put together a list of statutory duties of local authorities in 2011.
Where activity is described as involving consent or contractual elements it should not be taken as meaning that formal consent as the basis of processing is being applied - the basis of processing in most cases will be on the basis of GDPR regulation 6(1)(e) "that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the council as data controller or GDPR regulation 6(1)(c) where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation".
In cases where consent is obtained this will be made entirely and expressly clear to the data subject. In some matters where the issue is so significant that the health and wellbeing of the subject is at serious risk (described in the regulations as where the "vital interests of the data subject or another person need protection") the council will apply regulation 6(1)(d).
Generally, we collect and use personal information when:
- you, or your legal representative, have given consent
- you have entered into a contract with us
- it is necessary to perform our statutory duties
- it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency
- it is required by law
- it is necessary for employment purposes
- you have made your information publicly available
- it is necessary for legal cases
- it is to the benefit of society as a whole
- it is necessary to protect public health
- it is necessary for archiving, research, or statistical purposes
If information is required about the legal basis of any particular activity, please contact the Data Protection Officer. If you have given us consent to use your personal information, you have the right to remove it at any time. If you want to remove your consent, please contact the Data Protection Officer at dpa@easthants.gov.uk and tell us which service you’re using so we can deal with your request.
Information sharing
Did you know that some of your personal information might be ‘special’?
Some information is ‘special’ and needs more protection due to its sensitivity. It’s often information you would not want widely known and is very personal to you. This is likely to include anything that can reveal your:
- sexuality and sexual health
- religious or philosophical beliefs
- ethnicity
- ehysical or mental health
- trade union membership
- political opinion
- genetic/biometric data
- criminal history
We will only process special categories of personal data if either:
- you have given explicit consent to the processing
- we must carry out tasks under employment, social security or social collective law
- we must protect the vital interests of a person who is physically or legally unable to give consent
- processing relates only to members or former members of the council – or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes – and provided there is no disclosure to a third party without consent
- data has already been made public by the individual
- we must establish, exercise or defend a legal claim
- processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest
- processing is necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine, for assessing the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of law or a contract with a health professional
- we must protect the public interest in public health
- we must enable archiving of data that has a public interest – that is, scientific research, historical research or for statistical purposes
We only use what we need!
Where we can, we’ll only collect and use personal information if we need it to deliver a service or meet a requirement.
If we don’t need personal information we’ll either keep you anonymous or we won’t ask you for it. For example, in a survey we may not need to collect your contact details so we’ll only collect your survey responses.
If we use your personal information for research and analysis, we’ll always keep you anonymous or use a different name unless you’ve agreed that your personal information can be used for that research.