Corporate consultation privacy notice

It is necessary for the council to gather, collect, store and process personal information relating to any corporate consultations to facilitate the development of future strategy, policy, service design and budget planning. The council puts measures in place to protect the privacy of individuals throughout this process.  

As a public authority,  the council takes your rights and freedoms seriously and will only release information when required under law or with your consent.  Further information about your rights, how to contact the Data Protection Officer, how long information is held or how we process your personal information can be found in the council's overarching privacy notice.
 

How the information is collected

Short surveys and questionnaires may be run using online forms on the council's website.

Surveys and polls are run through the council's Let's Talk Uttlesford consultation portal. The software platform the Let's Talk Uttlesford website runs on and associated technology operations are provided by Bang the Table Pty Ltd.

Read the Privacy Policy governing the Bang the Table service.

Surveys and questionnaires are run using the council's Snap webhost consultation portal. The software platform the Snap webhost website runs on and associated technology operations are provided by Snap Surveys Ltd.

Read the Privacy Policy governing the Snap webhost service.
 

Information we may collect

The personal data we collect from you includes:

• name
• email address
• responses to questionnaires and polls, comments on discussion forums, documents, maps, idea boards, stories and guestbooks or questions asked through the Q&A tool
• equalities data collected through questionnaire response - age, sex, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, disability, pregnancy or maternity or if you are a carer
• employment and education details
• postcode collected through questionnaire response

We may share the information with

The data we collect may be shared with:

• other departments of the council

We may share summary information of consultations, but no personal details with:

• other councils
• government departments
• police and fire services

We also publish summary reports of consultations on our website. These do not include personal details, although we may include the names and information of participating organisations such as statutory consultees, town and parish councils.
 

How we use your personal information

We collect and use this information in order to:

• facilitate your participation in our consultation and engagement activities
• understand your views about a particular topic or an activity carried out by the council
• analyse consultation and engagement activity
• inform the council's future strategy, policy, service design and budget planning
• undertake equalities monitoring
• authenticate and verify your account (through your email address)
• communicate information to you about engagement and consultation opportunities, events and other initiatives, if you have requested to be kept informed
• remind you to update your account information
• inform you of the outcome of the engagement and consultation activities, if you have requested to be kept informed
• respond to enquiries and comments
• understand how you as a user interacts with the website and improve how our website functions
• protect the integrity of discussion from individuals and groups who may attempt to unduly influence the outcomes of the consultation process
• provide access to private areas of the website for targeted consultations and engagement
   

Data retention

The council will only keep your information for as long as necessary.  Full details of how long the council retains your information can be found in the council's Document Retention Policy (PDF) [705KB] .   After this time your information will be securely destroyed.