You may have heard about the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), that comes into effect on 25th May, 2018.

This new law is a positive step in controlling the use of your personal data, and we are committed to ensuring the ongoing protection of the data you provide us with.

Please take a moment or so to review how we will use your personal data:

 

Explore Kent Privacy Policy

At Explore Kent, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

We aim to provide you with the highest quality service whilst you are accessing our services. To do this, we must keep records about you and the services we provide for you. We aim to maintain high standards, adopt best practice for our record keeping and regularly check and report on how we are doing.

We will:

• only collect personal data for specified purposes
• explain why we are collecting personal data
• where necessary, seek consent relating to the use of personal data
• retain personal data securely and
• only hold personal data for a specified amount of time after which it will be deleted.

If you have any questions regarding this policy or our privacy practices, then please contact us:

by email: explorekent@kent.gov.uk

in writing: Explore Kent, Kent County Council, Invicta House, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ

or by telephone: 03000 414844.

We may change our privacy notices from time to time, so please check the Explore Kent website (www.explorekent.org) occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes.

 

Who are we?

Explore Kent is a Kent County Council led partnership with public, private and voluntary sector partners that promotes and actively encourages Kent’s residents to access, enjoy and benefit from the great natural resources that Kent has to offer. Kent County Council is the data controller and is responsible for the security of the data that you provide and for overall compliance with data protection legislation.

The service provides high quality and effective marketing, promotion and product development support to the wider KCC Countryside/ active related services including among others Kent Downs AONB, Kent Country Parks, Countryside Management Partnerships, Kent Sport and Highways, ensuring our shared customers receive the service they expect and deserve.

 

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you when you contact us or access any of our products and services. This will usually be through a contact, application or registration form submitted to us either:

• digitally through our website, email or
• as a hard copy sent to us through the post or passed to one of our staff in person.

We collect and process information purely on the basis of your consent.

• When submitting events through our events form, your information and images will be added to a spreadsheet for only Explore Kent staff members to view. Images submitted will also be held in our filing system.

 

What information do we collect?

The personal information we collect is different for each service we provide but will usually include your name, contact details and information needed to provide you with the specified service. We will state clearly the information we will be collecting when you apply, enter or sign up for a service. If you would like to find our more information about a specific product or service then please visit the relevant webpage on our website (www.explorekent.org) or contact us by email at explorekent@kent.gov.uk.

• When submitting an event, we collect contact details and images.

 

How is your information used?

We may use your information to:

• send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you
• process requests that you have submitted in accordance with the relevant criteria and terms and conditions
• dealing with entries into a competition
• seek your views or comments on the services we provide
• notify you of changes to our services
• publish events information on our website and social media.

 

How long will we hold your information?

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are required by law to keep some information, but in general we will only keep information for as long as is necessary for the relevant service or for as long as is set out in any contract you hold with us.  If you would like to find our more information about a specific product,  service or retention period then please visit the relevant webpage on our website (www.explorekent.org) or contact us by email at explorekent@kent.gov.uk.

 

Who has access to your information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties or share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.  We may pass your information to our third-party partners and other associated organisations for the purpose of providing services requested by you. However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service.

 

How you can access and update your information

The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you would like to update or amend the information that we hold about you, then please contact us:

by email: explorekent@kent.gov.uk

in writing: Explore Kent, Kent County Council, Invicta House, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ

or by telephone: 03000 414844

 

Your Rights

Under the GDPR you have a number of rights that you can access exercise free of charge which allow you to:

• Know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
• Ask to see what information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
• Object to direct marketing
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

• Ask us to delete information we hold about you
• Have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
• Object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
• Object to how we are using your information
• Stop us using your information in certain ways

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note: your request may delay or restrict your involvement with Explore Kent or prevent you from accessing its services.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact [the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.]

 

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

 

Who to Contact

Please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk or by writing to the Data Protection Officer at Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone 03031 231113.

 

For further information visit https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council/about-the-website/privacy-statement