Survivor Voice Ambassadors project privacy notice for participants
We keep this privacy notice under regular review, and it was last updated on 13 November 2024.
Kent County Council (KCC) 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
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 the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as a ‘controller’ of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.
We want to make sure that people who have experienced domestic abuse have the opportunity to have their stories heard, in a way that is best for them. Taking part in a confidential conversation to share your experiences could help improve policies, support and services for victims or survivors of abuse. How much is shared with us and how this will be shared is up to the participants.
Personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
As part of this project, we will collect the following information from those who would like to participate:
- Name.
- Email address.
- Telephone number.
- Demographic information, such as your gender, age and the district in which you live.
We also collect the following ‘special category data’ (personal data which is more sensitive and is treated with extra care and protection when you provide it to us):
- Ethnicity.
- Disabilities.
- Sexual orientation.
How we use your personal information
We use the information that you have given us to:
- Administer the project (for example, contacting you to arrange participation in activities for which you have indicated you would like to be involved.
- Ensure that we can cater to your individual needs (for example, if you have accessibility requirements or specific needs to help you engage in the project).
- Ensure that our project is inclusive and includes participants from a range of backgrounds.
Reasons we can collect and use your personal information
When we collect your personal data, we rely on the following as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal and special categories of personal data:
- Article 6(1)(a) - the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.
- Article 9(2)(a) - the data subject has given their explicit consent for one or more specified purposes.
How long your personal data will be kept
As per the KCC data retention schedule and in line with the retention period set for this project (code reference: AS6.6.6), your personal and special category data will be kept until the end of the Kent and Medway Domestic Abuse Strategy 2024 to 2029 (PDF, 15.2 MB) (December 2029) and then securely destroyed. As per code reference AS6.6.7, the retention of anonymised stories will be reviewed after December 2029.
Who we share your personal information with
The information you provide will be collected and held by the Kent Analytics Domestic Abuse Research Programme and the Domestic Abuse Projects and Partnership Team. We will only share anonymised and unidentifiable information you have consented to be shared, which could be with the public or professionals.
The information you provide will be used to:
- inform the commissioning of future services
- share victim and survivor experiences at partnership meetings
- develop training for professionals
- support media campaigns and website activities
- inform future policies and projects
- evidence for research projects.
We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.
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 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. However, we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to 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.
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
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.