Putting Your Privacy First

Data Protection and privacy laws have hit the headlines recently, following the controversy surrounding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica and how they have used and sold personal data.  Up until now GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) is something that people may have heard about, but don't necessarily understand how or why it is one of the most significant changes that has happened around data privacy since 1998.

The original Data Protection Act came into play before the internet become what it is today and long before social media. Ownership of personal data very much belonged with the entity collecting the data, and in a nutshell, the new legislation aims to protect individuals and put the power of how personal data is used back into the hands of us, the data subject.  

As the data subject your rights include; 

• the right to have your data updated, 
• the right to be forgotten (have you data deleted), 
• the right to request what data is held on you,
• the right to data portability,
• the right not to be subjected to automated profiling

Plus organisations must now ensure that any data that is no longer required, must automatically be deleted in line with their retention polices.

For those of you who may have read our recent newsletter, you will already know the parish council has been working towards ensuring they are fully compliant with GDPR. However, GDPR does not stop at putting a few processes in place, it is an ongoing mission to protect the personal data that we hold on individuals and to ensure that we are collecting it in a completely lawful manner, whilst preventing against data loss and breach.

The parish council may only hold limited amounts of personal data. Much of which is held to help the parish council fulfill its legal obligations, such as with tenants, or because it is in the public interest, but regardless of this, the parish council will still take the processing of personal data very seriously.  Complacency towards data is not acceptable, and with this in mind, we aim to be fully transparent about the data that we may hold, along with with the purpose for holding it, all of which is reflected in our new Privacy Notice.

Behind the scenes all of the parish councils employees, councillor's and role holders will be undergoing training on data protection, as the responsibility for protecting data does not stop with the council it stops with the individuals working for and serving the council.  And to add an additional layer of security, all councillor's will be adopting a professional email address.

If you have any questions or concerns about how your data is being used, you can contact the Parish Council at any time.

Cllr Theresa Durrant