Skip to content

Digital Kent privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated in January 2023.

This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect, how we use and may share information about you. We are required to give you this information under data protection law.

Who we are

Kent County Council (KCC) collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and that Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Digital Kent offers bespoke digital inclusion and capability service for people to support them to be digitally included, to promote digital inclusion to organisations and to empower organisations and individuals to utilise digital services.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of providing Digital Kent support and services we collect the following information when you provide it to us, or when you are referred to us by an agency you are already involved with:

Personal data

  • personal details (such as name, date of birth, NHS number, National Insurance details, address and contact details)
  • the organisation name and contact details that you are associated with (if applicable, such as your school or college and your district or borough council)
  • information related to our relationship with you (such as agreements, correspondence, meeting notes and attendance at events)
  • information related to any support from other services and/or any benefits you are receiving
  • information relating to your education and career history
  • bank details where necessary
  • opt-in request to receive Newsletters and notifications from Digital Kent about services on offer.

Special categories of data

  • information about your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical belief and your sexual orientation is collected for equality monitoring and evaluation purposes only
  • information about health conditions or disabilities that may be relevant to your circumstances or the support you require.

We also obtain personal information from other sources

This includes:

  • organisations who referred you on their behalf
  • any other services you are receiving support from

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks under consent. We rely on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article 6(1)(a) – Consent: the individual has given clear consent to process their personal data for a specific purpose.

When we collect or share special category personal data, we rely upon the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

  • Article 9(2)(g) – Reasons of substantial public interests. We rely on the ‘equality of opportunity or treatment purpose’ condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(g) to process your special category data.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • decide if you meet the criteria for our services
  • work with you to assess your needs and how they can best be met
  • support you in being digitally inclusive and capable
  • maintain a record of people who are supported by Digital Kent
  • process applications for support
  • investigate claims of the project or scheme’s misuse
  • evaluate, impact assess and quality assure the services we provide
  • inform future service provision and the commissioning of services
  • communicate information to you about digital inclusion and capability opportunities, events and other initiatives
  • promote the Digital Kent programme on social media and other marketing methods for case studies (with consent)
  • respond to enquiries and comments.

Who we share your personal information with

We will share your information with:

  • teams within Kent County Council working to improve outcomes for people
  • commissioned providers of local authority services (working to support digital inclusion and capability)
  • other local councils (such as borough, city, district, parish and town councils)
  • partners and stakeholders improving digital access (such as telecoms providers and NHS)
  • funders (such as European Structural Investment Fund)
  • commissioned suppliers to conduct evaluation, impact assessments and quality assurance on the service we provide.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information securely and retain it for a maximum of 10 years, after which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed.

Your rights

Under GDPR you have rights which you can 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 (subject access request)
  • 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 (ICO)
  • where we have relied upon consent, withdraw consent at any time.

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. We will liaise with the Home Office regarding your request, as information is jointly controlled with the Home Office. Please note: your request may delay or prevent us from supporting you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under GDPR.

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.

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 write to: Data Protection Officer, Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ.

UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.