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. Digital Kent is part of the Financial Hardship Programme, within the Chief Executive’s Department’s Strategy, Policy, Relationships & Corporate Assurance division. 

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 information

• personal details (such as name, date of birth, gender, NHS number, National Insurance details, address and contact details)
• the personal details and contact details that you are associated with (if applicable, such as parent/carer, child, spouse or those living in the same household)
• the organisation name and contact details that you are associated with (if applicable, such as your school or college, GP practice, your district or borough council and parish or town 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, employment and career history
• information relating to your digital access, digital skills and digital engagement
• 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
• 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, including through the ReferKent system
• any other services you are receiving support from
• commissioned providers and suppliers.

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.

We use your personal information to:

• assess and 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 the team
• process applications for support and arrange delivery of any services or 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)
• liaise with agencies, companies and charities on your behalf
• keep you safe from harm
• respond to enquiries and comments.

We will share your information with:

• teams within Kent County Council or Medway Council (whichever is most appropriate) working to improve outcomes for people
• commissioned providers and suppliers of the local authority (working to support digital inclusion and capability)
• digital champions delivering support (verified and approved by the digital inclusion and capabilities team)
• other local authorities or councils (such as borough, city, district, parish and town councils)
• partners and stakeholders improving digital inclusion and financial hardship (such as voluntary and community sector organisations, housing associations, telecoms providers and NHS)
• funders (such as European Structural Investment Fund, NHS, UK Power Networks (UKPN), Southern Gas Network (SGN) or Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council)
• commissioned suppliers to conduct evaluation, impact assessments and quality assurance on the service we provide.

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.

We will hold children’s (aged 13 or under) personal information securely and retain it for a maximum period of three years, after which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed.

For the purposes of referring individuals or receiving referrals through the ReferKent system, personal information will be anonymised after six months from the date of the referral being made. Please see ReferKent retention period AS4.12.17 in our retention schedule for more information. 

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.

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.

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.

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 the Information Commissioner who may be contacted on 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.

The Digital Kent website (www.digitalkent.uk) utilises cookies to enhance your browsing experience. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer when you visit a website. They are widely used to make website work and work more efficiently. Cookies also help website owners understand how you use the site so that they can make it easier to find what you’re looking for. 

Find out how to manage cookies on the Information Commissioner’s Office website. 

The types of cookies we use

We use three categories of cookies:

• Necessary Cookies – these are cookies that are essential for the website to function properly. These cookies are basic functionalities and security features for the website, anonymously. 
• Analytics Cookies – these are used to understand how visitors interact with the website, which helps in delivering a better user experience for website users. 
• Functional Cookies – these are cookies to improve our website’s functionality. They may be set by us, or by third party providers, whose services we use on our site. 

Google Analytics (Analytics Cookies)

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how you use the Digital Kent website (www.digitalkent.uk). We do this to help make sure the site is meeting your needs and to make improvements based on our findings. 

Google Analytics stores information about: 

• the pages you visit on www.digitalkent.uk
• the time you spent on each page
• how you got to the site
• what you click on while you’re visiting the site

Google may retain user and event data for up to 14 months. We don’t collect or store your personal information (for example your name or address) so we can’t identify who you are. We don’t allow Google to use or share our analytics data. 

Read Google’s overview of privacy and safeguarding data and find out how you can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites. 

Google Analytics uses the following cookies on our website: 

YouTube (Functional Cookies)

We embed YouTube videos so that you can watch them on our website. We use YouTube’s Privacy Enhanced Mode which means YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information when n you watch their videos on our web pages. 

YouTube uses the following cookies on our website: 

 For more information visit the YouTube Privacy and Safety Centre.