Waste management - Privacy notice
Who we are and what we do
The Council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation as we collect and process personal information about you in order to provide services and meet our statutory and regulatory obligations.
This notice explains why we ask for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.
Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:
Data Protection Officer (DPO)
West Oxfordshire District Council
Council Offices, Witney, OX28 1NB
Email: data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk
Tel: 01993 861194
Why we need your information and how we use it
The Council does not need, and does not use, information about you for routine bin collections.
The council may use personal information, in particular, email addresses to contact residents requesting completion of a satisfaction survey about the waste and recycling service.
Information about you will only be used if you:
- report a missed collection
- order new, additional or replacement waste and recycling containers
- report missing or damaged containers
- request a collection of a bulky item
- apply for an assisted collection
- request our business waste disposal and recycling services
- make a general service enquiry, comment or complaint
The legal basis for using your information:
There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. For this service:
(i) Contract: you have entered into a contract with us. For example, if you have paid for the garden waste service
(ii) Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
What type of information is collected from us
In order to provide waste collection and recycling services, it is necessary for us to collect and hold personal information. This information may include:
- Basic personal information such as name, address, telephone number, email address. Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called “special category data” which requires more protection to keep it safe. We will take extra care of this data.
- Financial information
- Photographs and film images of individuals*
- Information relating to complaints or incidents
We will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services.
In some cases, you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that this may impact on our ability to provide some services to you.
Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)
We may share your information with partner organisations, including:
- Our contractors who provide our waste services
- Other departments within the Council
- External Auditors and regulators
We will not normally share your information with organisations other than our partner organisations without your consent, however, there may be certain circumstances where we would share without consent such as where we are required to do so by law, to safeguard public safety, and in risk of harm or emergency situations. Any information which is shared will only be shared on a need to know basis, with appropriate individuals. Only the minimum information for the purpose will be shared.
How long we keep your information (retention period)
Data is only held as long as is necessary, unless superseded by statutory regulation, and disposed of securely when it is no longer needed.
*Footage is recorded on the hard drive in the vehicle and is automatically overwritten after 28 days. Downloaded images are only retained if an incident occurs and will only be held for the duration of any incident/investigation.
How we protect your Information
We will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.
We have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal data from loss, misuse, or unauthorised alteration or destruction.
Please note however, that where you are transmitting information to us over the internet this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
For any payments which we take from you online, we will use a recognised online secure payment system. We will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.
Your rights
You have rights under the Data Protection Legislations:
- To access your personal data
- To be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
- To have your personal data corrected
- To have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
- To object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
- To have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
- To be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your data; we will self-report breaches to the Commissioner.
How you can access, update or correct your information
The Data Protection Legislation allows you to find out what information is held about you, on paper and computer records. This is known as ‘right of subject access’ and applies to your Waste Management Services data along with all other personal records.
If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of our records free of charge, within a month.
In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.
The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. We are working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date please email us or write to us at:
Waste Management Service
West Oxfordshire Council
Council Offices
Witney OX28 1PB
Contact us
Further information
If you would like to know more about how we use your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this leaflet, please tell us. Contact the Data Protection Officer
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner: https://ico.org.uk