Privacy and data protection
This explains
how the West Lancashire District Council website, which is managed
by West Lancashire District Council, uses any information you give
to us, and the ways in which we protect your privacy.
The Data Protection Act
Under the Data Protection Act, we have a legal duty to protect any
information we collect from you. We use leading technologies and
encryption software to safeguard your data, and keep strict
security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it. We
recognise, however, that this medium can never be fully secure and
you should be aware of this when you use the site. We may pass on
your details to any third party or government department provided
always that we act in a fair and lawful manner.
What information do we collect from
visitors?
We collect three kinds of information from website visitors:
feedback, personal details collected from online forms, and site
usage information, from session cookies and log files.
a) Feedback: We collect
feedback through online forms and surveys, through
the comments
and feedback section, or through phone calls or letters.
In order to answer your question or deal with your complaint we may
need to contact Lancashire County Council or other government
departments. We will not share your personal details with any
private company, unless it is contracted to provide the service
which you are applying for or commenting on.
b) Personal details: We will collect
information from you if you complete any online forms on our website or if you
contact us
with comments or specific requests. We may ask you for your name,
email address and relevant personal details. Forms processed by
West Lancashire District Council are only stored for as long as
they are necessary. We may pass your details on to third party
service providers (e.g. Lancashire County Council) who will deal
with your request. These third parties are obliged to keep your
details securely, will use them only to fulfil the request and will
dispose of the information at the appropriate time.
c) Site Usage: We collect two types of
data...
i) Session cookies
Cookies are pieces of data created when you visit a website. The
cookies our site uses are "session cookies", which means that your
preferences", such as your choice of language, are stored
temporarily while you move around the site. You can set your
computer not to accept cookies. Session cookies are deleted when
you leave the site. They do not contain any personal information
about you, and do not hold any information about which sites you
went to before visiting this site.
ii) Log files
We collect web statistics (log files) automatically about your
visit to our site. This information is used to help us follow
browsing preferences on our site so that we can regularly improve
our website. These statistics do not contain personal data and
cannot be traced back to an individual.
What happens when I visit a link to another
site?
This website contains links to other websites, both those of
government departments and of other organisations. This privacy
policy applies only to our site, so you should always be aware when
you are moving to another site and read the privacy statement of
any site which collects personal information.
How to access to your information or contact West
Lancashire District Council
If you wish to see our records of any correspondence you have sent
to us, or if you have a query or complaint about this privacy
policy or about the site, you can contact us by email: customer.services@westlancsdc.gov.uk.
Personal information
> Publishing personal information on the
council website
Changes to this privacy policy
If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated
version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are
always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and
under what circumstances we will share it with other parties.
Related information
> Identity theft: how to
protect yourself from identity theft