Data Protection

It is important for us to ensure that personal data, including sensitive data, is always processed lawfully in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We need to collect and use personal data so that we can carry out our legal obligations, provide services, and meet the needs of people we deal with. This includes current, past and future staff, customers, the public, elected Members, contractors, and other public organisations.

We process personal data line with our service level privacy notices. Each of our privacy notices explains what personal data we collect, why we are using it, how long we will keep it for, and whether we share it with anyone. You can find our privacy notices on our privacy page.

Personal data

Personal data is any information that identifies a living person. The information could directly identify a person, or it could indirectly identify a person when it is combined other information.

Special category data is personal data that needs more protection because it is sensitive. The following types of information are special category data:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Political opinions
• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Trade union membership
• Genetic data
• Biometric data
• Health
• Sex life or sexual orientation

Your rights

The UK GDPR gives you a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These are:

• The right to be informed – you have the right to know what information we are processing about you.
• The right of access – you have the right to ask for copies of your personal data. A request for personal data is often called a Subject Access Request.
• The right to rectification – you have the right to ask us to correct any inaccurate information we hold about you.
• The right to erasure (or right to be forgotten) – you have the right to ask for your personal data to be removed from our records.
• The right to restrict processing – you have the right to restrict the way we use your personal data in some circumstances.
• The right to data portability – you have the right to ask us to transfer your personal data to other organisations or companies.
• Rights related to automated decision-making and profiling – if you believe we have profiled or made an automated decision about you, you have the right to ask us to review that decision.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please let us know by email: dataprotectionofficer@maidstone.gov.uk or write to us at:

Complaints

If you want to complain about how we are using your personal data, please let us know by email: dataprotectionofficer@maidstone.gov.uk or write to us at:

Please include as much information as possible so that we can conduct an investigation.

If you want someone else to make a complaint on your behalf, you will need to give written authorisation so we know they are acting on your instruction.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your complaint, or if you want to request a review of our response to your information rights request, you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Their contact details are:

Phone: 0303 123 1113
Email: casework@ico.org.uk