How we use and store your information
Overview
We maintain contact details for individuals including elected representatives, electoral administrators, political parties, registered campaigners and others. We collect this information at the point of inbound contact or via publicly accessible data sources.
How we use and store information
We use this information to send newsletters and updates on important developments about electoral administration, electoral registration and political finance. This activity forms part of our public task which has its basis in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
We store this information in a customer and contact management system and use network controls to ensure only members of staff that require access to this information have it. We monitor access through audit logs so that we can attribute any changes to the data we hold to a named member of staff.
We audit this information annually to ensure accuracy and to deactivate redundant records. At this point we replace personal data from redundant records with artificial identifiers, to maintain a record of the contact but remove the personal data that is available to staff.
We may store personal data with MailChimp to automate the way we send newsletters and audit the reach of this content. MailChimp is compliant with General Data Protection Regulation requirements and we retain control over the personal data stored on its platform.
We will respond to any requests for access, rectification, erasure, restriction or objection about this data. We will act on each request based on its own merits.
When you contact us
You are able to contact us via our website, email, letter, telephone, Facebook or Twitter.
We operate a public information line to support the public with queries about elections and the regulation of political finance. The legal basis for processing this information is that it is necessary for the performance of our public task as set out in law.
What we may record
When you contact us we may record the following information:
- name
- contact details
- social media handle
- location
- details of your query
We will hold this information for one year from the last contact except where there is a regulatory reason for us to retain the information for longer. This may apply to contacts from political parties or electoral administrators.
We may also use a UK-based external contact centre to manage calls and our social media accounts are managed via a third party tool. This service is operated under contracts that are compliant with General Data Protection Regulation and UK data protection legislation.
This information is stored in a customer and contact management system and access to this information is via network controls which ensure that only members of staff that require access have it. This is monitored through audit logs so that we can attribute any changes to the data we hold to a named member of staff and the date of the change is recorded.
Occasionally we may want to share the information you have given us with other organisations. For example, if you are raising an issue about electoral registration processes within a local authority area, we may want to speak to the Electoral Registration Officer at that local authority about this.
In these circumstances, we will minimise the amount of personal data we share and focus on the general facts of your query. We will inform you of any such sharing as soon as possible.
We will respond to any requests for access, rectification, erasure, restriction or objection about this information. Each request will be acted on based on its own merits.