Devon County Council

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Your Information – Our Commitment

If we hold information about you, we assure you that we are processing that information fairly and lawfully. Devon County Council will adhere to the following commitments when processing personal information:

It is our policy to be open with you about your personal information.

When We Collect Information about You

• We will tell you who we are and what we intend to do with the information
• We will be fair in the way we collect information about you
• We will only collect information that is necessary for what we do
• Where practical, we will collect information directly from you
• If we collect information about you from someone else, we will, wherever possible, make sure you know that we have done this

When We Use Information about You

• We will only use your information for legitimate purposes about which you have been informed unless we are required to do otherwise for legal reasons

When We Disclose Information about You

• We will only disclose your information to third parties for legitimate purposes about which you have been informed unless we are required to do otherwise for legal reasons

Accuracy of your Information

• We will ensure that information about you is accurate and up to date when we collect or use it.  You can help us to achieve this by keeping us informed of any changes to the information we hold about you

Security of your Information

• We will protect your information against unauthorised use, inadvertent disclosure, damage, loss and theft

Retention of Information about You

• We will hold information about you only for as long as is necessary (subject to any statutory retention periods)
• We will ensure that the information is disposed of in a secure manner when it is no longer needed

Our policy is governed by the 8 principles of data protection that are legally enforceable under the Data Protection Act, 1998.

8 Principles of Data Protection

1. Data must be processed fairly and lawfully.
2. Data must be collected and processed for only one or more specified purposes.  I.e. we must not collect data for one reason and then use it for something else.
3. Data we hold must be adequate for its purpose or purposes but not excessive or irrelevant.  I.e. we must not hold too much data or data which we do not need.
4. Data must be accurate, and where required, up to date.
5. We must not keep data for longer than necessary.
6. We must process data in accordance with the rights of the data subject under the Act.
7. Data must be kept securely and we must guard against its loss.
8. We must not transfer personal data to any country outside the European Economic Area unless that country has an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects.