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Broadband team privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 20 June 2022.

Kent County Council respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data.  This privacy notice will inform you how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Who we are

Kent County Council 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 the Data Protection Act 2018.  We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Kent County Council’s Broadband Team are working with Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and suppliers to provide the digital infrastructure necessary to support the government strategy for enhancing digital connectivity. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Information collected by us

Our services either collect personal information directly from you or receive it from third-parties. We only receive your personal data from outside agencies or third- parties where there is a sound legal basis and purpose for doing so.

When gathering and using personal information, we will comply with the data protection principles, as set out in the KCC data protection policy.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

For the Council to be able to process your personal information we need to demonstrate that we have a lawful basis for doing so.

We have a public task to support telecoms providers and Government to improve digital connectivity across Kent. It is in the public interest to process your personal data to enable us to do this.

How long your personal data will be kept

We only keep information for as long as it is needed.  This will be based on either a legal requirement (where a law says we have to keep information for a specific period of time) or accepted business practice. This is set out in our retention schedule.

Who we share your personal information with

Telecoms Providers – Property address details and landline number information may need to be shared with telecoms providers to confirm what digital connectivity is available and enable the roll out of new infrastructure .

Local district and borough councils – and neighbouring authorities (e.g. Medway Council and East Sussex County Council). We may need to share contact and property address details to support the roll out of connectivity across the county including resolving any issues arising from cross-administrative boundary issues.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) and other government departments and agencies. We may need to share contact details and property address details with these government departments in relation to the rollout of national publicly funded broadband programmes to:

  • support the delivery of national-led digital infrastructure programmes to improve connectivity
  • respond to enquiries or complaints
  • monitor and assure public investment in digital infrastructure.
  • research and plan new services.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required to do so by applicable law.

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.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge that allow you to:

  • Withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it.
  • Ask to see what information we hold about you.
  • Ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you.
  • Object to direct marketing.
  • Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.

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 but we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties.

Who to contact

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.

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.