Purpose and lawful basis for processing

We are collecting your personal data to send you information you may find interesting about North Devon Council, our events, local authority partnership services, projects and campaigns as an email newsletter or digest.

The lawful bases we rely on are as follows:

• Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, which allows us to process personal data where we have obtained your consent to do so - this is where you have given us a positive indication that you wish to receive certain communications by subscribing to our communications and by indicating your subscription preferences
• Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, which allows us to process personal data when it is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party and such interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights. For instance we may auto-enroll you onto a new communications subscription category if we consider that it links with your existing subscription preferences or we consider it is of general interest to our subscribers (eg. the provision of Covid 19 updates during the pandemic) save that you have the right to update your subscriber preferences at any time (see below)
• Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR, which allows us to process your personal data in accordance with a public task which the Council carries out (see further below)

What we need

You provide us with your email address when you subscribe to our communications service and we need this in order to contact you and, for certain services, you can provide us with your postcode, for example if you would like information specific to your address such as bin collections and planning applications.

What we do with it

We use the GovDelivery and Granicus cloud system to manage our newsletter subscribers and send communications.  This means that we store your data on cloud based software via a service called GovDelivery which is managed by the Council's contractor, Granicus.  Granicus acts as the Council's data processor pursuant to our contract with them.  This means that they can only use your personal data in accordance with our strict instructions and for no other purpose.  Granicus uses data centres based in the USA to store your data which is held in accordance with international security standard ISO 27001 and in compliance with UK data protection law.

In order to deliver services to you, it may be necessary for us to share your personal data within North Devon Council departments, in order to manage your subscriptions.

We will only share your personal data with other officers in the Council where they have a business need to know and/or where this is necessary in accordance for the performance of a public task.  This may include sharing your data with the following teams to ensure they hold up to date contact details for you:

• Council Tax (Revenues)
• Benefits
• Environmental Health
• Planning Enforcement
• Waste and Recycling
• Elections

How long we keep it

We will retain your email address for the duration of a communications campaign, or for as long as you are happy to keep receiving communications. If our communications campaign ends, then a decision will be taken and your email contact details will be removed from the subscriber list. 

You can update your subscriber preferences and you have the option to delete your account at any time which will also determine how long we hold your data.  If you decide that you wish to remove your postcode then this will show under the ‘questions’ tab in subscriber preferences, you just need to click on the questions tab and delete the postcode and save the change.  For more information about how long we hold personal data, see our Retention Schedule.

What are your rights?

You have the right to withdraw your consent to the receipt of communications from North Devon Council at any time.  You can do this by updating your subscriber preferences.  Where we are processing your data pursuant to our legitimate interests or pursuant to a public task you have the right to object to this.  There are legitimate reasons why we may refuse your objection, which depend on why we are processing it.  For more information on your rights see Your Rights.