Data Protection Privacy Notice – Solent Partners

Solent Partners’ range of services including business support, careers and skills; as well as our industrial clusters Maritime UK Solent and The Solent Cluster. We’ve all come together under the Solent Partners banner and this Privacy Notice relates to all organisations noted here.

Solent Partners is a registered Data Controller (Registration Number ZB620226). Solent Partners tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information in accordance with data protection law. This privacy notice tells you about how Solent Partners collects and uses personal information. It applies to information we collect about:

  • People who use our services, or request a service from us;
  • People who apply for business support;
  • Business customers
  • Complainants and other individuals in relation to a complaint or query;
  • Visitors to our websites

What We Collect

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

We may collect the following information:

  • name and job title
  • sensitive personal data (optional)
  • contact information including email address
  • demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests
  • other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers

What we use your information for:

  • Deliver services and information to residents and businesses –
  • With your consent, we may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.
  • From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you to seek your consent to take part in market research. We may contact you by email, phone or mail.
  • Help investigate any concerns or complaints
  • Plan and manage Solent Partners services, including checking on the quality of services and developing future services
  • Carry out Solent Partners activity required by HM Government
  • Carry out research and consult with people who use Solent Partners services

Who we will share information with

  • Solent Partners
  • Portsmouth City Council as our Accountable Body
  • Paris Smith as our Company Secretary
  • Alcium as our Customer Relations Management System Provider

Paris Smith and Alcium do not use your personal information for anything other than providing the service to Solent Partners and will not pass on your information for promotional purposes to any other person or organisation (third parties).

How long we keep information for

Records are kept in line with the Portsmouth City Council’s (as our Accountable Body) retention policy, and we will not keep your information longer than necessary.

People who use Solent Partners Services

The use of the Business’s information may include matching to other data sources held by Solent Partners to understand more about organisations like yours and general patterns and trends, although the business’s data will not be published or referred to in a way which identifies any individual or business. If you have any questions in relation to how the information your business provides, and in particular any personal data, will be processed and disclosed please email us.

Email Addresses and Preferences

Information collected by subscribing to news and information from Solent Partners will only be used for the purpose of keeping you informed about our work in the Solent area. You will not be added to any mailing list or receive any mail unless you have chosen to do so.  You can unsubscribe from this service at any time.

Social Media

Solent Partners uses a range of social media services to publicise Solent Partners news, stories, opportunities and events and to receive comments and feedback from local businesses and residents including through direct messages, which are private, and through posts which are public to other social media users.

The information you provide via social media is subject to the social media service providers’ privacy notices and policies.

Complaints

When we receive a complaint from a person we generally make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.
We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide.
We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whomever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying them to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.
We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy, which is available on request. Information relating to a complaint will normally be retained for up to 7 years from when the complaint is resolved.
It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

We take any complaints we receive very seriously. Please bring it to our attention if you think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

You should let us know if you disagree with something written in your record. We may not always be able to change or remove the information. However, we will correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the record.

We are happy to provide any additional information or explanation about how the Solent Partners collects and uses personal information.

Any complaints, queries or requests in relation to this policy should be sent to the Solent Partners’s Data Protection Officer.
Email: dataprotection@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Telephone: 023 92834385

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (if you prefer to use a national rate number).

How we use cookies

When you visit the Solent Partners website to view a page or download a form, we will collect the following information automatically:

  • the domain name (if available) and IP address from which you accessed our site
  • the date and time you visited
  • the pages you viewed
  • the type of browser and operating system you used

This information enables us to analyse usage of our site and help us to improve the website service we offer. This monitoring does not include personally identifiable information. Most web site servers on the Internet will store this information every time you visit their site. Personal information collected from users of this site will not be disclosed to third parties. We will not sell, share or rent this information to any person, persons or organisation.

We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site which helps us to improve our website service. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone.

We use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect this information. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

We will make it clear to you whenever we collect any personal information through our website and will explain what we intend to do with it.

The Solent Partners websites use Google Analytics, a service provided by Google Inc, which sets cookies in order to evaluate the way our websites are used by our customers, so we can improve our sites based on the content our customers look at most often.

We have considered the full implications of the legislation and we’ve looked at a number of methods we could use to gain your informed consent for the way we use cookies.

As current guidance is still evolving and a number of the solutions open to us, such as pop-ups or tick boxes on our web pages, would be obtrusive for you when you are using our site, we have taken the decision to provide you with information about how we use cookies and information on how you may wish to manage and treat those cookies on the device you use to access our websites.

Most web browsers will allow you to control the use of cookies on your computer. You can find out how using the following external links about Cookies. For more information on the cookies set by Google Analytics please see Google’s privacy policy. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics (across all websites) please go to Google’s opt out page.

Please note, to opt out requires you to download and install a browser add-on. If you decide to download the Google software, any difficulties experienced are not the responsibility of Solent Partners. Also, by deleting cookies or disabling future cookies, you may not be able to access certain areas of features of our website.

Security

We will take appropriate steps to make sure that the personal information we hold (on paper and electronically) is kept securely and only used by people who have a right to see it. The Solent Partners security measures include encrypting personal data and equipment, system access controls and training in data protection for all staff.

Where another company or organisation processes personal information on behalf of Solent Partners, they will only process your personal information in line with Solent Partners’ instructions and are obliged to provide security assurances to Solent Partners and to certain regulatory bodies.

Records are kept in line with the Portsmouth City Council (as our accountable body) retention policy and we will not keep your information longer than necessary.

Access to your personal information

Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’. If we do hold information about you we will:

  • give you a description of it;
  • tell you why we are holding it;
  • tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
  • let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

To make a request for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing addressing it to the data protection officer of our accountable body, Portsmouth City Council:

Data Protection Officer
Portsmouth City Council
Civic Offices,
Portsmouth,
PO1 2AL

A request form is available to print and complete: Data subject access – request form

Please send your completed request form to the address below, along with:

  • a form of photo identification (passport or driving licence)
  • a recent bank statement or utility bill

The following may also be helpful:

  • any former names
  • former addresses
  • any reference numbers given to you by Solent Partners

If you are have difficulty making a written request, or don’t have any form of identification please use the contact details below to discuss your request with us.

If we hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again, contacting the Data Protection Officer.

Please be aware that we would not let you see any parts of your record which contain:

  • Confidential information about other people; or
  • Information that a professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing; or
  • If we think that a crime may be prevented or found out by disclosing information to you.

Data processing

Data processors are third parties who provide elements of our services for us, such as IT systems suppliers and market researchers who handle or collect personal data on behalf of Solent Partners. We have contracts in place with our data processors via Solent Partners. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from Solent Partners or approved sub-contractors. Data processors are required to hold any personal information securely and to retain it for the period we instruct.

How to contact us about data privacy

If you want to request details of our privacy policy and how we collect and use personal information, you can write to the Solent Partners’ Data Protection Officer at our accountable body:

Data Protection Officer
Portsmouth City Council
Civic Offices,
Portsmouth,
PO1 2AL
Email: DataProtection@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Telephone: 023 9283 4385

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