Privacy Policy
Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd collects holds and processes a considerable amount of information, including personal information to allow it to provide services effectively. Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd is the wholly owned trading company of Colchester Borough Council.
Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd does this in its capacity as a data controller. Contact details for the data controller can be found in the ‘Where can I get advice section?’ below.
The Council recognises that this information is important to citizens and that it is responsible to the citizens for the information it holds about them. As such, it takes seriously its responsibilities under Data Protection legislation to ensure that any personal information it collects and uses is done so proportionately, correctly and safely.
The privacy notice below explains how the Council uses information about you and the ways in which we protect your privacy. At the bottom of this webpage you’ll see a list of services we provide. Under each service is more information about who we may share your information with and why.
What is personal data?
Personal data means any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier.
This definition provides for a wide range of personal identifiers to constitute personal data, including name, identification number, location data or online identifier, reflecting changes in technology and the way organisations collect information about people.
What level of personal data is used?
The Council collects, holds and uses personal data to allow it to provide services on behalf of the citizens of Colchester. These services include, amongst others, planning, recycling and waste, council tax and benefits, elections and voting, parking and travel, housing, business rates, licensing, environmental health and leisure activities.
Why we use personal information?
Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd will use your personal data for a limited number of purposes, and at all times within the rules set out in Data Protection legislation.
We will process personal data for the following purposes:
- For the purpose for which you provided the information.
- Where the processing is necessary to comply with its legal obligations, e.g. the prevention and/or detection of crime.
- Where you have consented to the processing.
- Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd will use your personal data, after it has been anonymised, to allow the statistical analysis of data to allow the effective and provision of services.
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. Each privacy notice at the bottom of this page explains for each service which legal reason is being used. Generally we collect and use personal information where:
- 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 we have 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 DPO@colchester.gov.uk and tell us which service you’re using so we can deal with your request.
Your account
We will never contact you to ask for your account password or other login information. Please exercise caution if you receive any emails or calls from people asking for this information and claiming to be from Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd.
Newsletter subscriptions
If you subscribe to a newsletter on our website(s) or at any events, we will not pass your details onto any third parties, and they will be stored confidentially, in accordance with the Data Protection legislation. In order for us to provide this service to you we will need to collect and store an email address. You can unsubscribe at any time by going to https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKCOLCHESTER/subscriber/topics?qsp=UKCOLCHESTER_2
Your rights
The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us.
How can you access the information we hold about you?
You are also legally entitled to request access to any records held by Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd about yourself. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must normally give you access to everything we have recorded about you. However, we will not let you see any parts of your record which contain:
- confidential information about other people; or
- information a care 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.
This applies to paper and electronic records. If you ask us, we will also let others see your care record (except if one of the points above applies). To make a subject access request please visit www.colchester.gov.uk/info or email info@colchester.gov.uk
How can you request correction of inaccurate information?
Whilst Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd tries to ensure that any personal data it holds about you is correct, there may be situations where the information it holds is no longer accurate. If this is the case, please contact the department holding the information so that any errors can be investigated and corrected. You should let us know if you disagree with something written on your file. You may not always be able to change or remove the information. However, we will correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the records.
You can ask to delete information (right to be forgotten)
In some circumstances you can ask for your personal information to be deleted, for example:
- Where your personal information is no longer needed for the reason why it was collected in the first place
- Where you have removed your consent for us to use your information (where there is no other legal reason us to use it)
- Where there is no legal reason for the use of your information
- Where deleting the information is a legal requirement
- Where your personal information has been shared with others, we’ll do what we can to make sure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.
Please note that we can’t delete your information where:
- we’re required to have it by law
- it is used for freedom of expression
- it is used for public health purposes
- it is for, scientific or historical research, or statistical purposes where it would make information unusable
- it is necessary for legal claim
You can ask to limit what we use your personal data for
You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal information for where:
- you have identified inaccurate information, and have told us of it
- where we have no legal reason to use that information but you want us to restrict what we use it for rather than erase the information altogether
When information is restricted it can’t be used other than to securely store the data and with your consent to handle legal claims and protect others, or where it’s for important public interests of the UK.
You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for any council service. However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering that service.
Where possible we’ll seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information because we are required to by law.
Right to complain
You have the right to complain about any matter relating to our service, including how we use your personal data. In the first instance please contact our Data Protection Officer by e-mailing DPO@colchester.gov.uk
How do we keep information secure?
We will take appropriate steps to make sure we hold records about you (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we will only make them available to those who have a right to see them. Our security includes:
- encryption
- access controls on systems
- security training for all staff
Our Data Protection and Information Security policies can be found below:
Data Protection Policy 2017/18
Information Security Policy 2017/18
Where in the world is your information?
The majority of personal information is stored on systems in the UK. But there are some occasions where your information may leave the UK either in order to get to another organisation or if it’s stored in a system outside of the EU.
We have additional protections on your information if it leaves the UK ranging from secure ways of transferring data to ensuring we have a robust contract in place with that third party.
We’ll take all practical steps to make sure your personal information is not sent to a country that is not seen as ‘safe’ either by the UK or EU Governments.
How long do we keep your personal information?
We will only store your personal information for as long as is necessary. Records will be kept in accordance with our retention policy.
Who will we share your personal information with?
We use a number of commercial companies and partners to either store personal information or to manage it on our behalf. Where we have these arrangements there is always a contract or information sharing protocol in place to ensure that the organisation complies with Data Protection law. Arrangements involving sensitive personal data will have been formally assessed in more detail for their compliance with the law.
Sometimes we have a legal duty to give information about people. This is often because we must give that information to courts.
We may also share your personal information when we feel there is a good reason that is more important than protecting your confidentiality. This does not happen often, but we may share your information:
- for the detection and prevention of crime/fraudulent activity; or
- if there are serious risks to the public, our staff or to other professionals;
- to protect a child; or
- to protect adults who are thought to be at risk, for example if they are frail, confused or cannot understand what is happening to them.
The law does not allow us to share your information without your permission, unless there is proof that someone is at risk. This risk must be identified as being serious before we can go against your right to confidentiality. When we are worried about your physical safety or we feel that we need to take action to protect you from being harmed in other ways, we will discuss this with you and, if possible, get your permission to tell others about your situation. We may still share your information if we believe the risk to others is serious enough to do so. There may also be rare occasions when the risk to others is so great that we need to share the information straight away. If this is the case, we will make sure that we record the information we share and our reasons for doing so.
Wherever possible we will only use anonymised, pseudonymised or de-personalised information.
Data Matching may be used to assist the Council in responding to emergencies or major accidents, by allowing the Council, in conjunction with the emergency services, to identify individuals who may need additional support in the event of e.g. an emergency evacuation.
We do not sell personal information to any other organisation for the purposes of direct marketing.
Where can I get advice?
If you would like further information or if you have any concerns about how the Council is handling your personal data, these can be raised with the Council’s Data Protection Officer: Email: DPO@colchester.gov.uk
Write to: Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd, Rowan House, 33 Sheepen Road, Colchester, CO3 3WG.
For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:
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. Alternatively, visit www.ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk.
Website cookies
To make this site simpler, we sometimes place small data files on your computer. These are known as cookies. Most big websites do this too. They improve things by:
- remembering settings, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page
- remembering information you’ve given (eg your postcode) so you don’t need to keep entering it
- measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs.
By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device. We do not use cookies on our main website that collect information about your browsing habits in order to make advertising relevant to you and your interests.
Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. Indeed, you can manage and/or delete these small files as you wish.
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use this site. We do this to make sure it’s meeting its users’ needs and to understand how we could do it better.
Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are.
We also collect information on the number of times particular search terms are used and the number of failed searches. We use this information to improve access to the site and to identify gaps in the information content so we can plan appropriate expansion of the system. Unless the law allows us to, we do not:
- share any of the information we collect about you with others
- use this information to identify individuals.
Third party cookies
We use videos from YouTube and feeds from other websites such as Facebook and Twitter. These third party websites place cookies on your device when watching or viewing these pages.
Below are links to their cookie policies:
Disabling cookies
You can stop cookies being downloaded on to your computer or other device by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. If you do this, however, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
There is more information about how to delete or stop using cookies at www.aboutcookies.org. If you wish, you can also opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics. Further information on the use of personal information can be found at www.ico.org.uk.
Updates to this privacy notice
Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and feedback from service users, as well as to comply with changes in the law. When such changes occur, we will revise the “last updated” date at the top of this notice. We encourage you to periodically visit the Council’s web site to review this notice and to be informed of how Colchester Amphora Trading Ltd is protecting your information.
The privacy notice was last updated on 17/01/2019