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Kent Libraries, Registration and Archives surveys privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated March 2025.

Kent County Council (KCC) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to 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. We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Kent Libraries, Registration and Archives send surveys to our customers regularly to ensure that we are meeting customer need, to seek feedback to help us improve our services and to determine the level of customer satisfaction. Surveys are anonymous although we do ask for special category data in order to ensure that our services are fully inclusive. However, you do not need to include this data if you prefer not to. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

The personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of running customer satisfaction surveys to seek feedback about our services we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • Email addresses for the purpose of sending out surveys.
  • Your name and address, email address or telephone number if you provide this to us on the survey and have asked us to get in touch with you.

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:

  • Gender.
  • Age.
  • Ethnicity.
  • Disabilities.
  • Religious or philosophical beliefs.
  • Sexual orientation.

We also obtain personal information from other sources as follows:

  • Spydus Library Management System.
  • Databases or mailing lists relevant to specific services, for example, Open Access services.
  • Email enquiries to our Archives team.
  • Ask a Kent Librarian enquiry database.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • contact you with regards to completing a customer satisfaction survey.
  • contact you if you have asked us to get in touch via the customer satisfaction survey.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We rely on Article 6(1)(a) Consent “The data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes” as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data.

We rely on Article 9 (2)(a) explicit consent “The data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes” as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your special categories of personal data.

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category or criminal convictions data when relying on the conditions above:

  • We have a Retention Schedule which explains how long data is retained.
  • Data is accessed, altered, disclosed or deleted only by those authorised to do so.
  • Data is protected by levels of security ‘appropriate’ to the risks presented by our processing.

The provision of your contact details is required from you to enable us to send you a customer satisfaction survey to gain feedback on the service that you have received.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information for:

  • personal data held on our library management system will be kept for the length of your library membership
  • personal data held on databases where you use our specific services will be held for the duration of your membership to these services
  • personal data held on our online enquiries system will be held for 6 years
  • completed paper survey questionnaires will be kept for one year.

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share:

  • your name and contact details with library staff in the relevant district if you have specifically included an enquiry in the survey that needs to be followed up by the local teams
  • special category data from Archive surveys with the Archives and Records Association who process and collate the survey responses for all Archives nationally

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint or claim. We rely on Article 9(2)(f) where the processing of special category data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

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 on individuals’ rights under GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

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.

Who to 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.

Read our corporate privacy statement.