Privacy Policy

Your Privacy – effective 25 June 2018

 

 

Introduction

 

Galway Gastronomy operates http://www.galwaygastronomy.ie/. This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of the personal information we receive from users of the site.

We use your personal information only for providing members and supporters of the Galway, West of Ireland Food Charter with opportunities, news and relevant information and updates concerning the Galway and West of Irelands food community. By using the site, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

 

 

Why we use your personal information

Do you know what personal information is?

 

Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person.  This can include information that when put together with other information can then identify a person.  For example, this could be your name and contact details.

 

 

Did you know that some of your personal information might be ‘special’?

 

Some information is ‘special’ and needs more protection due to its sensitivity.  It’s often information you would not want widely known and is very personal to you.  This is likely to include anything that can reveal your:

  • sexuality and sexual health
  • religious or philosophical beliefs
  • ethnicity
  • physical or mental health
  • trade union membership
  • political opinion
  • genetic/biometric data
  • criminal history

 

 

Why do we need your personal information?

 

We may need to use some information about you to:

  • deliver services and support to you;
  • manage those services we provide to you;
  • train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services;
  • help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your services;
  • keep track of spending on services;
  • check the quality of services; and
  • to help with research and planning of new services

 

 

How the law allows us to use your personal information

 

There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information.

 

Generally we collect and use personal information in the where:

  • you, or your legal representative, have given consent
  • you have entered into a contract with us
  • it is necessary to perform our statutory duties
  • it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency
  • it is required by law
  • it is necessary for employment purposes
  • it is necessary to deliver health or social care services
  • you have made your information publicly available
  • it is necessary for legal cases
  • it is to the benefit of society as a whole
  • it is necessary to protect public health
  • it is necessary for archiving, research, or statistical purposes

If we have consent to use your personal information, you have the right to remove it at any time.  If you want to remove your consent, please contact us, telling us which service you’re using so we can deal with your request.

 

 

We only use what we need!

 

Where we can, we’ll only collect and use personal information if we need it to deliver a service or meet a requirement.

If we don’t need personal information we’ll either keep you anonymous if we already have it for something else or we won’t ask you for it.

If we use your personal information for research and analysis, we will keep you anonymous or use a different name unless you’ve agreed that your personal information can be used for that research.

We don’t sell your personal information to anyone else.

Galway Gastronomy collects only information that you wish to volunteer by signing up as either a member or supporter of the Galway, West of Ireland Food Charter.

Any information which you provide in this manner is used by Galway Gastronomy only in line with the purpose for which it is provided and is not made available to any third parties,

 

 

What you can do with your information

 

The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us.

 

 

You can ask for access to the information we hold on you

 

Whenever we assess your needs or provide you with services, we would normally expect to share with you, the nature of the records made.

However, you also have the right to ask for all the information we have about you and the services you receive from us.  When we receive a request from you in writing, we must give you access to everything we’ve recorded about you.

However, we can’t let you see any parts of your record which contain:

  • Confidential information about other people; or
  • Data a professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing; or
  • If we think that giving you the information may stop us from preventing or detecting a crime

This applies to personal information that is in both paper and electronic records.  If you ask us, we’ll also let others see your record (except if one of the points above applies).

It is the right of individuals to obtain copies of all personal information held by organisations such as ours. Requests for copies of the personal information we hold on you should be made by emailing: regionofgastronomy@galwaycoco.ie.

 

 

You can ask to change information you think is inaccurate

 

You should let us know if you disagree with something written on your file.

We may not always be able to change or remove that information but we’ll correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the record to show that you disagree with it.

 

 

You can ask to delete information (right to be forgotten)

 

In some circumstances you can ask for your personal information to be deleted, for example:

  • Where your personal information is no longer needed for the reason why it was collected in the first place
  • Where you have removed your consent for us to use your information (where there is no other legal reason us to use it)
  • Where there is no legal reason for the use of your information
  • Where deleting the information is a legal requirement

Where your personal information has been shared with others, we’ll do what we can to make sure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.

Please note that we can’t delete your information where:

  • we’re required to have it by law
  • it is used for freedom of expression
  • it is used for public health purposes
  • it is for, scientific or historical research, or statistical purposes where it would make information unusable
  • it is necessary for legal claims

 

 

You can ask to limit what we use your personal data for

 

You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal information for where:

  • you have identified inaccurate information, and have told us of it
  • where we have no legal reason to use that information but you want us to restrict what we use it for rather than erase the information altogether

When information is restricted it can’t be used other than to securely store the data and with your consent to handle legal claims and protect others, or where it’s for important public interests.

Where restriction of use has been granted, we’ll inform you before we carry on using your personal information.

You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for any council service.  However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering that service.

Where possible we’ll seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information because we are required to by law.

 

 

You can ask to have your information moved to another provider (data portability)

 

You have the right to ask for your personal information to be given back to you or another service provider of your choice in a commonly used format. This is called data portability.

However this only applies if we’re using your personal information with consent (not if we’re required to by law) and if decisions were made by a computer and not a human being.

It’s likely that data portability won’t apply to most of the services you receive from the Council.

You can ask to have any computer made decisions explained to you, and details of how we may have ‘risk profiled’ you.

You have the right to question decisions made about you by a computer, unless it’s required for any contract you have entered into, required by law, or you’ve consented to it.

You also have the right to object if you are being ‘profiled’.  Profiling is where decisions are made about you based on certain things in your personal information, e.g. your health conditions.

If and when Council uses your personal information to profile you, in order to deliver the most appropriate service to you, you will be informed.

If you have concerns regarding automated decision making, or profiling, please contact the Data Protection Officer who’ll be able to advise you about how we using your information.

 

 

Who do we share your information with?

 

We do not share your information with any 3rd party data collection bodies with the exceptions of:

  • Information provided by you for marketing purposes.
  • When it is our legal obligation to provide such information.

 

 

How do we protect your information?

 

We’ll do what we can to make sure we hold records about you (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we’ll only make them available to those who have a right to see them.  Examples of our security include:

  • Encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password).  This is done with a secret code or what’s called a ‘cypher’.  The hidden information is said to then be ‘encrypted’
  • Pseudonymisation, meaning that we’ll use a different name so we can hide parts of your personal information from view.  This means that someone outside of the Council could work on your information for us without ever knowing it was yours
  • Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it
  • Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong
  • Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches)

 

 

Where in the world is your information?

 

The majority of personal information is stored on secure servers in Europe.  But there are some occasions where your information may leave the these servers either in order to get to another organisation or the server need to migrate the information to an external server.

We’ll take all practical steps to make sure your personal information is not sent to a country that is not seen as ‘safe’ by EU Governments.

If we need to send your information to an ‘unsafe’ location we’ll always seek advice from the Information Commissioner first.

 

 

How long do we keep your personal information?

 

There’s often a legal reason for keeping your personal information for a set period of time, and we try to include all of these in our retention and disposal schedule.  This ranges from months for some records to decades for more sensitive records.

 

 

How can I submit a request?

 

Requests for copies of the personal information we hold on you should be made by emailing regionofgastronomy@galwaycoco.ie.

 

 

Comments, compliments and complaints

 

When the Council receives a complaint it makes up a file containing the details of the complaint.  This normally contains the identity and contact details of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.  The Council will only use the personal information it collects to process the complaint and to check on the level of service it provides.  The Council does keep statistics showing information like the number of complaints it receives, but not in a form which identifies anyone.  Further information on our Policy or how to submit a comments, compliments and complaints policy is available on the website.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to the Council it will only use the information supplied to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

 

 

Where can I get advice?

 

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

Alternatively, visit www.oic.ie

 

 

Cookies, Google Analytics and how you use this website

Cookies

 

Where possible we do not use cookies unless you have given us consent to do so. If you see our information bar about cookies at the top of this page – it means your visit is not being tracked in any way. However the site makes use of a session cookie called PHPSESSID. This cookie is necessary for site functionality and is set even if you do not give your consent. It is held temporarily in memory and is deleted when the web browser is closed. This cookie contains no personally identifiable information. No other cookies will be set without your consent.

 

If you do give consent for our use of cookies, we will set a cookie called cookie_allowed. This cookie will last for one year, and is used by the site to ensure that other cookies are never set unless you, the end user, have given permission. This cookie will only ever contain the number 1.

 

 

Google Analytics

 

We use Google Analytics tracking cookies to collect anonymous traffic data about your use of this website. This information is stored by Google and subject to their privacy policy, which can be viewed here: http://www.google.com/privacy.html. Google Analytics collects information such as pages you visit on this site, the browser and operating system you use and time spent viewing pages. The purpose of this information is to help us improve the site for future visitors. If you have previously given consent to our use of cookies and would like to withdraw it, you only need to delete the existing cookies for the site in your browser. If you return to the site after that – we will not be using cookies or collecting any information about you. The following cookies are set by Google Analytics:

__utma Cookie

A persistent cookie – remains on a computer, unless it expires or the cookie cache is cleared. It tracks visitors. Metrics associated with the Google __utma cookie include: first visit (unique visit), last visit (returning visit). This also includes Days and Visits to purchase calculations which afford ecommerce websites with data intelligence around purchasing sales funnels.

 

 

__utmb & __utmc Cookies

 

These cookies work in tandem to calculate visit length. Google __utmb cookie demarks the exact arrival time, then Google __utmc registers the precise exit time of the user. Because __utmb counts entrance visits, it is a session cookie, and expires at the end of the session, e.g. when the user leaves the page. A timestamp of 30 minutes must pass before Google cookie __utmc expires. Given__utmc cannot tell if a browser or website session ends. Therefore, if no new page view is recorded in 30 minutes the cookie is expired. This is a standard ‘grace period’ in web analytics. Ominture and WebTrends among many others follow the same procedure.

 

 

__utmz Cookie

 

Cookie __utmz monitors the HTTP Referrer and notes where a visitor arrived from, with the referrer siloed into type (Search engine (organic or cpc), direct, social and unaccounted). From the HTTP Referrer the __utmz Cookie also registers, what keyword generated the visit plus geolocation data. This cookie lasts six months. In tracking terms this Cookie is perhaps the most important as it will tell you about your traffic and help with conversion information such as what source / medium / keyword to attribute for a Goal Conversion.

 

 

__utmv Cookie

 

Google __utmv Cookie lasts “forever”. It is a persistent cookie. It is used for segmentation, data experimentation and the __utmv works hand in hand with the __utmz cookie to improve cookie targeting capabilities. Further guidance on the use of personal information can be found at www.oic.ie

 

 

Changes to this privacy

 

This Privacy Policy is effective as of (25 June 2018) and will remain in effect except with respect to any changes in its provisions in the future, which will be in effect immediately after being posted on this page. We reserve the right to update or change our Privacy Policy at any time and you should check this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Service after we post any modifications to the Privacy Policy on this page will constitute your acknowledgment of the modifications and your consent to abide and be bound by the modified Privacy Policy. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either through the email address you have provided us, or by placing a prominent notice on our website.

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