We keep the Be Independent Privacy Notice under review. It was last reviewed and updated in June 2022.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice contact the council’s Data Protection Officer.
View the privacy information for all of the City of York Council (CYC). Please be advised that, as Be Independent is a CYC service, the privacy notice for CYC also applies to all Be Independent service users, and by consenting to the Be Independent Privacy Notice, you are also consenting to the CYC privacy notice.
- personal data
- collecting personal data
- using personal data
- sharing personal data
- our legal basis for collecting and sharing personal data
- retaining personal data
- further processing of personal data
- your rights relating to personal data
Personal data
The amount and type of personal data Be Independent will collect from you when you contact us will depend on why and how you are contacting or interacting with us, and the service or information you are requesting.
You may contact us for any of the other following reasons:
- to request information
- to apply for the service
- to tell us your circumstances have changed
- to report a problem
- when booking a service or an appointment for a service
- when making a payment
We may only need your name and address but for some services we will need more details and sometimes sensitive personal data or special categories of personal data. For example, if you are applying for our telecare services, we may need information about your health.
We will only ask you for the information that is necessary to provide you with the service you are contacting us about.
The type of personal data we will collect about you may include:
- name
- date of birth
- address
- telephone number
- email address
- residential information and access information
- any medical information you provide us with
- details of your emergency contacts
- bank account details for Direct Debit customers
See further details about how we define personal data and non-personal data.
Collecting personal data
Our policy is to protect and respect the privacy of our customers; therefore we do not collect any personal data about you when you access our website unless you choose to provide this information to us.
Using personal data
We may collect and use your personal data to enable us to:
- deliver the product or service you have requested
- fulfil contractual obligations
- issue a unique identifier (account number/log in)
- manage internal record keeping
- collate anonymous user statistics
- contact you via email with your consent
If you do not provide the personal data we need we may not be able to:
- provide you with the information you need
- make the application for the service you require
- report the problem you want to tell us about
- book the service or make the appointment for the service you require
- process a payment
We will only use the data we hold about you lawfully in line with current UK data protection and privacy legislation.
If you register on our website to receive a product or service, we will only use your data to provide you with that product or service, or similar products you may have a legitimate interest in.
Sharing personal data
We will share personal data about you with other council services in order for them to:
- provide you with the information you have requested when the information is not available to us
- make a decision on your application for the service you have requested
- confirm to you that changes to your personal data have been updated
- respond to the problem you have reported
- prepare for your appointment with the required service
We are the sole owners of any personal data we hold about you and we will not sell this information to any outside source.
Due to the nature of the services we provide, we may, in an emergency situation, pass your personal data to social carers, health personnel or the emergency service.
If you have the use of a mechanised piece of equipment on loan from us, we are required to have this equipment Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) inspected and serviced. In these instances we will pass your contact details only to our approved external service and maintenance providers.
We work with Enovation Group BV to provide our customer contact handling systems. We only work with external partners where we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information and where required, put in place contractual obligations to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you. See the Enovation Group BV Privacy Statement.
Sharing data under Data Protection legislation
We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:
- law enforcement
- fraud investigations
- regulation and licensing
- criminal prosecutions
- court proceedings
Our legal basis for collecting and sharing personal data
We will use your personal data because you are asking us to do something on your behalf. We may not be able to do what you have asked us to do if you do not provide us with your personal data and use it as described in this privacy notice.
In some cases we may need to use your personal data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations or where we are entering into a contract with you for a service.
Retaining personal data
We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access to files, electronic restrictions are in place to ensure that only employees who need the information to perform a specific task are given access to your personal details.
We will keep your personal data in accordance with our retention schedule requirements and when we no longer have a need to keep it, we will delete or destroy it securely.
At the end of the retention period, we may pass any relevant information to the City Archives where it is required or appropriate to do so.
Further processing of personal data
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we'll provide you with a new notice.
The new notice will:
- explain this new use before we start the processing
- set out the relevant purposes and processing conditions
Where and whenever necessary, we'll seek your consent to the new processing, if we start to use your personal data for a purpose not mentioned in this Privacy Notice.
Your rights relating to personal data
When we collect your personal data we'll tell you how we are going to use it. Where we process your personal data, you have a number of rights under data protection law.
See further details of your rights relating to personal data.