Privacy Policy


This website (www.watercommission.co.uk) is operated by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland.  We, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, take your privacy seriously and we ask that you read this policy carefully, as it contains important information on:

 

·           the personal information we collect about you;

·           what we do with your personal information; and

·           who your personal information might be shared with.

 

We are the controller of the personal information that we collect from you on our website, which means that we are legally responsible for how we collect, hold and use your personal information.  It also means that we are required to comply with data protection laws when collecting, holding and using your personal information.

 

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO), who ensures that we comply with data protection laws.  If you have any questions about this statement or how we hold or use your personal information, please contact the DPO via email at: [email protected]

 

Your attention is particularly drawn to section 2 of this policy, which confirms that you consent to your personal information and sensitive personal information being held and used by us as described in section 1 of this policy.

 

1.    What personal information do we collect about you and why?

 

Our website is a place for you to find out more about us and the work that we do.

 

When you visit our website, we collect personal information about you when you:

 

  • provide comments on the standard of service that you have received from your water supplier (for both home and business customers);
  •  submit an access to information request to us under access to information laws;
  • make a complaint against us;
  • apply for employment with us; or
  • otherwise provide feedback or make contact with us.

 

We use such personal information to:

 

·         communicate with you, including in response to your enquiries and comments;

·         respond to access to information requests made by you;

·         handle and resolve complaints made by you;

·         process your application for employment with us; or

·         keep the personal information that we hold about you accurate and up-to-date (if you provide any new personal information to us via the website)

 

We may not be able to fully respond to your enquiries, comments, information requests or complaints if you do not provide us with sufficient personal information to allow us to do so.

 

We may also collect information about you via cookie files.  A cookie is a small text file that is placed on to your computer or other access device when you visit our website.  We use cookie files for analytics purposes to gather statistical information on your use of our website and to improve your experience of using our website.

 

The information we obtain from our use of cookies will not usually contain your personal information. Although we may obtain information about your computer or other access device, such as your IP address, your browser and / or other internet log information, this will not usually identify you personally.

 

The table below provides more information about the cookies we use and why:

 

Name of cookie

Owner

Purpose of the cookie

Google Analytics

Google Inc.

This is a web analytics service provided by Google Inc., which uses cookies to show us how you found and explored our website, and how we can enhance your experience. It provides us with information about how you used our website e.g. how long you stayed on the website, the average number of pages viewed and also tells us how many visitors we have had.

ASP.NET_SessionId

 

Water Industry Commission for Scotland

This cookie ensures that you connect to the right service on our website when we make any changes to the way the website works, but it will not be used to gather any personal information about you.

 

__utma

 

__utmb

 

__utmc

 

__utmz

Water Industry Commission for Scotland

This cookie collects information about how you use our website, such as which pages you visit and if you experience any errors. These cookies do not collect any information that could identify you, and the information is only used to help us improve how our website works and understand our visitors’ interests.

 

civicAllowCookies

 

civicShowCookieIcon

Water Industry Commission for Scotland

This cookie remembers the settings you have applied, such as layout, text size, preferences and colours.  Information may be shared with partners to provide a service on our website, but will not be used for any other purpose.

 

 

If you do not want to accept cookies, you can change your browser settings so that cookies are not accepted. If you do this, please be aware that you may lose some of the functionality of our website.

 

2.    What is our legal basis for holding and using your personal information?

 

Data protection laws require us to have a legal reason for collecting, holding and using your personal information.

 

In some circumstances, we may rely on your consent as the legal reason.  By providing us with your personal information and sensitive personal information (relating to your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or other beliefs or sexual orientation) and the personal information and sensitive personal information of other individuals via our website, you:

 

•        consent to it being used by us as described in section 1 of this policy; and

•        confirm that you have informed the other individuals of 12 years old and above of the content of this policy and they have provided their consent to their personal information and sensitive personal information being used by us as described in section 1 of this policy.

 

You and the other individuals have the right to withdraw your consent to us holding and using your and their personal information and sensitive personal information by contacting us.  Once you / they have withdrawn your / their consent, we will no longer use your / their personal information and sensitive personal information for the purpose(s) set out in section 1 of this policy, which you originally agreed to, unless we have another legal reason for doing so.

 

Our other legal reasons for holding and using your personal information are:

 

·         compliance with the legal and regulatory obligations that apply to us, such as access to information laws;

·         exercise of our official authority vested in us in terms of the Water Services etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 and associated legislation; and

·         our legitimate interests – while you have a legitimate interest in the protection of your personal information, we also have an overriding legitimate interest in handling and using your personal information, for example, to ensure the effective functioning and availability of our website. 

 

3.    Who do we share your personal information with?

 

We do not ordinarily share personal information about visitors to our website with third parties.  However, we may share such personal information with law enforcement agencies for the prevention or detection of crime where communications that you send to us via our website would suggest that you have engaged, or are about to engage, in unlawful or criminal activity.

 

4.    How long do we keep your personal information?

 

We will only keep your personal information for as long as we need to for the purposes described in section 1 of this policy, including to meet any legal, accounting, reporting or regulatory requirements.  More information is contained in our data retention policy, which is available by contacting our Data Protection Officer (DPO).

 

5.    How do we keep your personal information secure?

 

The security of your personal information is of important to us and we use technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal information.

 

However, while we will use reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal information, the use of the Internet is not entirely secure and, for this reason, we cannot guarantee the security of any personal information that is transferred by or to you via the Internet.  If you have any concerns about the security of your personal information, please contact our DPO for more information.

 

6.    What rights do you have in relation to your personal information that we collect, hold and use?

 

It is important that the personal information that we collect, hold and use about you is accurate and current.  Please keep us informed of any changes by contacting our DPO.  Under certain circumstances, the law gives you the right to request:

 

•        A copy of your personal information and to check that we are holding and using it in accordance with legal requirements.

•        Correction of any incomplete or inaccurate personal information that we hold and use about you.

•        Deletion of your personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to hold and use it.  You also have the right to ask us to do this where you object to us holding and using your personal information (details below).

•        Temporarily suspend the use of your personal information, for example, if you want us to check that it is correct or the reason for processing it.

•        The transfer of your personal information to another organisation.

 

You can also object to us holding and using your personal information where our legal basis is a legitimate interest (either our legitimate interests or those of a third party).

 

Please contact our DPO if you wish to make any of the above requests.  When you make a request, we may ask you for specific information to help us confirm your identity for security reasons.  You will not need to pay a fee when you make any of the above requests, but we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to comply if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive.

 

7.    Feedback and complaints

 

We welcome your feedback on how we hold and use your personal information, and this can be sent to our DPO.

 

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, the UK regulator for data protection, about how we hold and use your personal information.  The Information Commissioner’s website is https://ico.org.uk/ and complaints can be made here. 

 

If you would like to receive this policy in alternative format, for example, audio, large print or braille, please contact our DPO.

 

8.    Updates to this policy

 

We may update this policy at any time, and you should check this policy occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version that will apply each time you access our website.

 

Last updated: May 2018