PN144 - Torfaen Business Direct Privacy Notice

Torfaen County Borough Council is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. This Privacy Notice is designed to give you information about the data we hold about you, how we use it, your rights in relation to it and the safeguards in place to protect it.

TCBC Service Area: Economy & Environment
Work area: Business Engagement Team
Contact Details: Kate Blewitt
Privacy Notice Name: Torfaen Business Direct

Data Controller: Torfaen County Borough Council, c/o Civic Centre, Pontypool, NP4 6YB

If you wish to raise a concern about the handling of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer on 01495 762200 or email dpa@torfaen.gov.uk

This Notice sets out how personal data that Torfaen Business Direct collects from you or that you supply to us, will be processed, used and disclosed by us.

Services provided by Torfaen Business Direct which is part of Torfaen County Borough Council and referred to as services in this Notice include but are not limited to:

Business support, guidance, advice and signposting (including business start-up)
Business Clubs
Inward Investment support
Financial products
Business events

Who provides your data to the Council?

The personal information we process is provided to us directly by you when you:

Contact us about our services
Register and/or sign up for, and/or purchase, and /or agree to receive or access our services
Consent to receive marketing and information communications
Voluntarily take part in research and surveys

We receive personal information indirectly from other services across the authority.

How does the Council collect this information:

We collect personal data through online and offline methods:

by phone
via the website
in writing
via social media
in person at events and exhibitions
at 1:1 meetings

What information does the Council collect about you?

In the course of providing services and/or you accessing these, Torfaen Business Direct collects and processes limited personal data. The type of information will vary depending on what business support we are providing you and your business with.

The personal data we may collect includes:

Name
Address
Telephone numbers
E-mail addresses
Disability Status
Ethnicity
Financial

Business data: We also collect Information about your business or your potential new business in order for us to plan, provide and evaluate improved services as well analyse and profile the businesses we support. Any commercially sensitive business data we are provided with in the course of providing our services will be treated with confidentiality.

Why does the Council process your personal data?

Under Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

(a) Your consent. We process your personal data when you provide explicit, voluntary consent to receiving business related communications from us. In these communications we will always provide an opt out facility. You can also email us at any time at businessdirect@torfaen.gov.uk or call us on 01633 648735 to stop receiving these. Please note changes may not be effective immediately. We will endeavour to comply with your request as soon as reasonably possible. We do not rely on consent as a lawful basis for any other processing.

(e) We need it to perform a public task. Torfaen Business Direct is committed to providing you with a professional service and developing future enhancements to our services. The personal data you provide us with enables us to fulfil and meet our obligations to you and your business/organisation or potential new business in an effective manner.

Special categories of personal data:

We may collect the following special category data:

personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin
data concerning health

We collect this under Article 9 of the UK GDPR.

We do not collect any criminal data.

Who has access to your data?

We may share your personal information with other Council departments who work with Torfaen Business Direct to offer and deliver relevant business-related support services. Your data is shared internally only with the appropriate staff where it is necessary for the performance of their roles.

Payments, if applicable, will need to be via the Make A Payment service on the Torfaen Council website.

In order to improve our services, we may share anonymised information, research and analysis with other relevant organisations.

Apart from where previously stated, we do not pass your details to third parties unless we are lawfully required do so.

Is the Data transferred out of the UK?

How does the Council keep your data secure?

The Council has internal policies in place to ensure the data it processes is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed. Access to this data is restricted in accordance with the Council’s internal policies and in compliance with the UK GDPR.

Data will be stored securely in:

A secure electronic database

Where the Council engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions. These third parties are also under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate measures to ensure the security of data.

How long does the Council keep your data?

The Council will hold your personal data only for the period that is necessary and will follow organisational and Local Authority standards in this area. At the end of the retention period the Council will securely destroy or dispose of the data in line with retention schedules.

Are we making automated decisions/profiling with your data?

Your rights

You have a number of Rights you can exercise:

Access - to obtain a copy of your data on request
Rectification – to require the Council to change incorrect or incomplete data
Object, Restrict or Delete - under certain circumstances you can require the Council to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
Data portability – to receive and/or transmit data provided to the Council to other organisations (this applies in limited circumstances)
Withdraw your consent at any time (where consent has been given)
To know the consequences of failing to provide data to the Council
To know the existence of any Automated Decision-making, including profiling, and the consequences of this for you
To lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Information Commissioners Office)

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact:

Kevin Davies, Public Protection ICT Systems Manager, Torfaen County Borough Council: Tel: 01633 647280 Email: kevin.davies@torfaen.gov.uk

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (Wales), 2nd Floor, Churchill House, Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH. Telephone 0330 4146421 or e-mail wales@ico.org.uk

Last Modified: 17/07/2023 Back to top